^^OV  n    .925 


BV  3790  .C6  1922 
Conant,  J.  E.  1867-1955 
Every-member  evangelism 


EVERY- MEMBER 
EVANGELISM 


( 


HO'-' 


1925 


EVERY-MEMBER 
EVANGELISM 


Ai  vi:^'- 


>"' 


By 


j.e:conant,d.d. 

Bible  Teacher  and  Evangelist 

Author  of 
'Why  the  Pastor  FaUed,"   "Is  It  Scholarly   to  be  Ortho- 
dox?" "Is  Atonement   by  Substitution  Reasonable?" 
"Divine  Dynamite,"   "The   Church,  the 
Schools,  and  Evolution" 


INTRODUCTION 
By 

J.  C.  MASSES,  D.D. 

Pastor  of 

Tkemont   Temple 

Boston 


PHILADELPHIA 
THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  TIMES  COMPANY 

1922 


Copyright,  1922,  by 
The  Sunday  School  Times  Company 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


CONTENTS 


Introduction 
Preface 


V 

ix 


Part  I 

THE    DIVINE    PROGRAM 

Introductory        1 

Scripture  Exposition 5 

The  Program  Unfolded 5 

The  Program  Illustrated         ....  11 

The  Program  Perpetuated          ....  18 

Practical  Application 30 

We  Must  Go  Individually          ....  31 

We  Must  Go  Systematically          ...  36 

Satanic  Opposition           41 

How  Satan  Hindered  the  Divine  Program  41 
How    Satan    Keeps    the    Divine    Program 

Hindered 48 


Part  II 

THE    DIVINE    PURPOSE 

Introductory        

This  Program  Will  Save  the  Church    . 
The  Present  Decline     .... 
The  Need  of  Revival       .... 
iii 


59 

60 
64 
76 


iv  Contents 

This  Program  Will  Reach  the  Lost        .  .       86 

Why  the  Church  Is  FaiHng          ...  87 

When  the  Church  Succeeds       ....  96 

Part  III 

THE    DIVINE    POWER 

Introductory 120 

The  Empowering  Life  of  Christ      .       .       .  124 

The  Meaning  of  the  Crucified  Life          .  .      125 

The  Method  of  Entering  the  Crucified  Life  142 

The  Overflowing  Love  of  Christ        .       .  .     163 

The  Love  of  Christ  Impels  the  Christian  .  167 

The  Love  of  Christ  Compels  the  Sinner  .     176 

APPENDIX 

Every-Member  Evangelism  in  Operation  .  .     184 

Organizing  for  Revival  Meetings    .       .       .  185 

Making  This  Program  Permanent      .       .  .     190 

The  Divine  Dynamics 193 


INTRODUCTION 

THE  first  great  passion  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
was,  and  is,  for  the  souls  of  men.  "The  Son 
of  man  came  to  seek  and  to  save  that  which  was 
lost."  In  his  intercessory  prayer,  recorded  in  John 
17,  he  prays  not  alone  for  those  who  are  with  him, 
but  for  all  those  who,  through  their  word,  should 
believe  on  his  Name,  that  they  might  be  sanctified 
as  he  was  sanctified,  in  order  that  the  world  might 
know  that  the  Father  had  sent  him  into  the  world. 

The  Great  Commission  was  not  given  to  the 
Christian  ministry,  but  to  the  Christian  Church.  It 
seems  quite  clear  that  when  the  Master  met  his 
disciples  on  the  mountain  in  Galilee,  "above  five 
hundred  brethren"  (1  Cor.  15:6)  were  together  in 
obedience  to  his  summons.  It  was  to  this  group, 
probably  containing  all  the  avowed  disciples  of  the 
Master  at  the  time  of  his  crucifixion — at  least  all 
who  stood  the  shock  of  that  crucifixion  and  main- 
tained the  integrity  of  their  faith  beyond  it — that 
he  gave  the  Great  Commission.  The  evangeliza- 
tion of  men  is  therefore  the  task  of  the  whole 
Church. 

Judged  in  the  light  of  Acts  1 : 8,  the  duty  of  the 
Church  in  bearing  witness  to  Christ  for  the  purpose 
of  persuading  men  to  believe  on  Christ  was  to  be 
continuous  and  simultaneous ;  that  is,  it  was  to  go 
on  continuously  and  everywhere  at  once.    The  Com- 


vi  Introduction 

mission  certainly  contemplates  a  continuous  Church 
activity  until  the  consummation  of  the  Age.  The 
very  genius  of  the  Gospel  Christ  gave  his  disciples 
to  proclaim  necessitates  the  dominance  of  the  Chris- 
tian passion  for  souls.  Wherever  the  Holy  Spirit 
resides  in  the  life  of  a  believer,  he  is  constantly  tak- 
ing the  things  of  Christ  and  showing  them  unto 
men. 

The  author  of  this  volume  will  point  out  the  fact 
that  it  is  not  the  task  of  the  ministry  to  do  the  soul- 
winning  work  of  the  Christian  body.  The  Holy 
Spirit  has  given  some  apostles,  and  some  prophets, 
and  some  evangelists,  and  some  pastors  and  teach- 
ers, for  the  perfecting  of  the  saints  unto  the  work 
of  ministering,  unto  the  building  up  of  the  body  of 
Christ.  Surely  no  right  conception  of  the  Christian 
ministry  can  degenerate  into  an  itching  ear  for  en- 
tertainment. An  evangelical  ministry  without  an 
evangelistic  passion  is  a  moral  impossibility.  To 
declare  a  church  evangelical  and  to  confess  it  non- 
evangelistic  is  to  proclaim  a  living  lie.  A  loving 
passion  for  Christ  inevitably  eventuates  in  a  Hving 
passion  for  men. 

Ih  a  very  vital  sense  all  the  problems  which  at- 
tend our  organizations  within  the  local  church  and 
within  the  larger  grouping  of  churches  easily  find 
their  solution  in  an  intense  evangelistic  activity,  and 
an  intense  evangelistic  atmosphere.  Pettiness,  self- 
ishness, estrangements,  prejudices,  bitternesses, 
seem  impossible  in  the  presence  of  the  miracle- 
working  God  whose  power  and  presence  are   fre- 


Introduction  vii 

quently  demonstrated  in  the  greatest  of  all  miracles, 
the  regeneration  of  souls.  There  is  a  melting  ten- 
derness of  heart,  a  warm  response  of  spirit,  a  quick- 
ened stimulation  of  mind,  and  an  irresistible  surge 
of  fellowship  proceeding  from  the  joy  of  salvation 
as  it  flows  constantly,  frequently,  into  the  lives  of 
those  who  are  being  redeemed.  Wherever  this 
atmosphere  is  guarded  and  maintained  it  will  hap- 
pen in  the  churches  now  as  it  happened  following 
Pentecost.  The  Church  will  be  all  together  in  one 
place,  they  will  pray  with  one  accord,  with  single- 
ness of  heart  they  will  break  bread,  great  joy  will 
be  upon  the  people,  and  with  mighty  power  the 
ministers  will  give  their  testimony  concerning  the 
resurrection  from  the  dead. 

There  can  be  no  substitute  for  this  primal  passion 
of  the  Christian  individual  and  of  the  Christian 
Church.  Without  it  the  ministry  becomes  formal, 
the  Church  cold,  the  world  indifferent.  A  passion- 
less ministry  can  never  arouse  a  cold  Church,  and 
a  cold  Church  can  never  witness  convincingly  to  an 
indifferent  world.  The  Christian  Church  to-day 
needs  a  revival  of  praying,  preaching,  and  personal 
testimony  to  the  intent  of  reaching  and  winning  the 
lost  to  a  living  faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

This  book  which  Dr.  Conant  has  written  should 
have  a  wide  reading,  for  it  will  without  doubt  en- 
courage just  those  results.  Profound  in  exposition, 
sane  in  Scriptural  application,  wise  in  practical  sug- 
gestion, the  book  proceeds  not  alone  from  the  pen, 
but  from  the  heart  of  this  devoted  servant  of  God 


viii  Introduction 

who  is  giving  himself  unceasingly  to  the  work  of 
the  ministry. 

His  work  as  an  evangelist  and  Bible  teacher  is 
deepened  and  enriched  by  the  fact  that  he  has  also 
been  a  pastor  and  writes  as  he  labors  in  the  keen 
appreciation  of  both  pastoral  and  Church  problems. 

I  bespeak  for  the  book,  as  I  anticipate  for  it,  a 
wide  and  thoughtful  reading. 

J.  C.  Massee. 
Tremont  Temple,  Boston. 


PREFACE 

OF  books  on  evangelism  there  are  many.  Nearly 
every  phase  of  the  subject  has  been  so  thor- 
oughly, Scripturally,  and  even  exhaustively  covered 
that  another  book  added  to  the  already  long  and 
excellent  list  seems  almost  out  of  place.  And  it 
would,  indeed,  be  altogether  out  of  place  but  for  an 
undoubted  lack  of  emphasis  in  much  if  not  almost 
all  that  has  been  written  on  two  most  fundamental 
and  vital  aspects  of  evangelism. 

One  of  those  fundamentals  has  to  do  with  the 
question  as  to  just  what,  precisely,  the  New  Tes- 
tament program  of  evangelism  is.  The  author  does 
not  know  of  a  single  discussion  of  the  subject  that 
puts  the  responsibility  for  evangelism  altogether 
where  the  New  Testament  places  it — on  every 
individual  Christian.  Much  has  been  written  on 
individual  work  for  the  lost,  it  is  true,  and  many 
who  have  read  have  been  stirred  up  to  undertake 
the  work,  but  there  has  been  little  if  any  systematic 
exposition  of  those  Scriptures  which  set  forth  the 
divine  program  of  evangelism  which  is  summed  up 
in  the  Great  Commission. 

It  is  popularly  supposed  that  "Go  ye  into  all  the 
world,  and  preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature" 
is  an  appeal  to  enter  the  ministry,  and  especially 
to  go  as  a  missionary.  The  vast  majority  of 
Christians   have   never   dreamed  that   it  is   a  per- 

ix 


X  Preface 

sonal,  individual  command  to  every  child  of  God 
to  go  into  his  own  personal  world  and  do  soul-win- 
ning witnessing  to  every  creature.  And  it  is  out  of 
this  misconception  that  the  popular  but  utterly  un- 
scriptural  phrase,  *lf  we  cannot  go,  we  can  send 
some  one  in  our  place,"  has  been  coined.  But  the 
truth  is,  we  are  never  told  to  "either  go  or  send." 
It  is  God's  prerogative  to  send ;  not  ours.  We  are 
commanded  to  do  one  thing  only,  and  that  is  to  GO. 
And  that  is  a  command  that  cannot  be  obeyed  by 
proxy;  it  can  be  obeyed  only  in  person.  And  so  it 
is  a  command  to  every  Christian  to  go  with  the 
Gospel  testimony  to  every  lost  one  in  his  own  per- 
sonal world,  as  well  as  a  command  for  those  who 
are  providentially  separated  unto  that  work  to  go 
out  into  every  corner  of  the  geographical  world. 

But  this  is  not  the  popular  conception  of  evan- 
gelism. It  is  generally  understood  to  consist  prin- 
cipally of  formal,  public  Gospel  discourses,  deliv- 
ered in  some  meeting-place  into  which  the  lost  have 
been  invited  in  the  hope  that  the  preacher's  mes- 
sage will  result  in  their  salvation.  The  New  Testa- 
ment, however,  as  illustrated  by  the  events  of  Pen- 
tecost, the  Church's  pattern  day  for  the  whole  Age, 
makes  public  and  formal  witnessing  the  climax  and 
cidmination  of  that  private  and  informal  witness- 
ing which  the  Great  Commission  commands  each 
Christian  to  do  in  his  own  immediate  personal 
world.  This  alone  is  the  New  Testament  program 
of  evangelism.  And  the  Church  will  never  reach 
the  lost  in  any  significant  numbers  until  this  pro- 


Preface  xi 

gram  is  followed,  in  the  power  of  the  Spirit,  with 
fidelity  and  exactness. 

The  other  fundamental  of  the  evangehstic  pro- 
gram which  the  author  feels  has  had  much  less  em- 
phasis than  it  needs  is  the  fact  that  while  the  Great 
Commission  is  sufficient  authority  for  every-mem- 
ber  evangelism,  it  is  not  and  cannot  become  suffi- 
cient motive.  We  may  be  authorized,  and  urged, 
and  commanded  to  take  the  Gospel  in  person  to  the 
lost,  but  the  power  to  go  does  not  He  in  a  command ; 
it  lies  in  a  Person. 

It  is  true  that  all  who  write  on  this  theme  lay 
more  or  less  emphasis  on  the  need  of  the  Holy 
Spirit's  power,  but  the  author  has  never  met  with 
any  discussion  of  evangelism  that  emphasizes  the 
divine  dynamics  quite  as  the  attempt  is  made  to 
emphasize  them  in  these  pages.  It  is  not  zve  who 
win  the  lost  by  the  help  of  Christ,  it  is  Christ  him- 
self who  does  the  soul-winning  through  the  lives 
and  lips  of  yielded  disciples.  And  so  it  is  not  so 
much  a  question  either  of  equipment  or  lack  of  it, 
as  it  is  a  question  of  his  absolute  possession  and 
control,  by  the  Ploly  Spirit,  of  whatever  equipment 
we  may  have.  When  the  Holy  Spirit  controls  a 
Christian,  he  will  be  constrained,  impelled,  borne 
along,  to  go  after  the  lost,  command  or  no  com- 
mand. The  great  essential,  therefore,  in  soul-win- 
ning is  to  be  completely  possessed,  through  the  ful- 
ness of  the  Spirit,  by  him  whose  life  on  earth  it 
was  to  seek  and  to  save  the  lost. 

Much  is  being  said  these  days  about  the  life  of 


xii  Preface 

victory  in  Christ.  The  real  evidence  of  victorious 
living  lies  not  in  an  experience  of  joy,  no  matter 
how  wonderful  and  continuous,  but  in  what  the 
indwelling  life  of  the  Victor  does  in  and  through 
us.  "To  me  to  live  is  Christ"  (Phil.  1:21)— that 
is  the  Hfe  of  victory,  because  the  Victor  himself 
lives  it  within  us.  And  when  the  life  of  him  whose 
passion  for  the  lost  led  him  to  the  death  of  the  cross 
is  lived  in  us,  the  same  passion  will  become  the 
normal  attitude  of  our  lives  toward  the  lost,  for  we 
shall  have  become  a  continuous  "living  sacrifice" 
that  they  might  live.  This  is  at  once  both  the  test 
and  the  evidence  that  the  crucified  and  risen  life  of 
the  victorious  One  is  being  lived  in  us  to  the  point 
of  personal  victory.  There  can  be  no  victorious 
living  apart  from  a  spontaneous  and  all-consum- 
ing passion  for  continuous  personal  evangelism. 

These,  then,  are  the  two  main  emphases  of  the 
following  pages.  It  is  not  the  mechanics  but  the 
dynamics  of  individual  work  for  the  lost  that  we 
are  to  study.  We  are  to  discover  that  every  Chris- 
tian, without  exception,  is  to  do  this  work;  then 
we  are  to  learn  that  no  Christian,  no  matter  what 
his  capacity  and  training,  can  possibly  do  it;  then 
we  are  to  find  that  he  whose  commands  are  always 
his  enablings  is  the  only  one  who  can  do  it,  and 
that  he  will  and  does  do  it  through  every  yielded 
disciple;  and  we  are  also  to  see  the  vital  relation- 
ship between  this  work  and  all  public  evangelism. 

The  whole  Church  is  in  a  most  serious  condition. 
Not  only  have  we  not  been  increasing  as  fast  as  the 


Preface  xiii 

population,  but  some  of  the  larger  denominations 
have  been  reporting  actual  net  losses  in  some  late 
years.  Public  evangelism  seems  to  be  occupying  an 
increasingly  small  and  less  vital  place  in  the  life  of 
the  Church,  while  worldliness  and  apostasy  are  tak- 
ing such  a  hold  on  the  very  vitals  of  Church  life 
that  private  evangelism  is  fast  disappearing.  If 
present  history  is  to  be  reversed  and  the  victorious 
history  of  other  days  repeated,  the  Church  must 
return  to  a  literal  obedience  to  the  divine  Program, 
and  surrender  to  utter  dependence  on  the  divine 
power.  To  this  end  these  pages  have  been  written. 
This  book  goes  forth  with  the  prayer  that  through 
its  reading  a  great  company  of  the  Lord's  people 
may  allow  the  Holy  Spirit  to  thrust  them  forth 
into  a  ripened  harvest. 

J.  E.   CONANT. 

Chicago,  III.,  January,  ip22. 


Part  I 
THE  DIVINE  PROGRAM 


INTRODUCTORY 

MANY  an  earnest  and  consecrated  pastor  is 
heartbroken  over  the  failure  of  his  people  to 
reach  the  lost  for  Christ  in  any  significant  numbers. 

More  than  once  has  such  a  pastor  gone  from  his 
knees  to  his  pulpit  with  a  heart  surcharged  with 
his  own  passion  for  a  lost  humanity,  and  a  divinely 
given  yearning  that  his  people  might  be  possessed 
by  the  same  passion. 

More  than  once  has  he  set  before  them  the  call 
to  the  work  of  soul-winning  until  it  has  seemed  as 
though  no  one  could  fail  to  respond. 

More  than  once  has  he  risen  to  such  an  inten- 
sity of  appeal  that  it  has  seemed  as  though  the  Son 
of  God  himself  was  pouring  out  his  own  yearning 
for  a  lost  world  through  human  heart  and  lips. 

And  as  he  has  pleaded  with  his  people,  he  has 
seen  them  rise  to  heights  of  inspired  and  enthu- 
siastic resolve.  He  has  seen  the  evidence,  in  their 
earnest  faces,  of  a  determination  to  give  their  lives 
as  never  before  to  the  work  of  soul-winning.  In- 
deed, he  has  seen  many  of  them  give  solemn  public 
pledge  before  God  that  seeking  to  win  the  lost  to 
Christ  should  be  the  main  purpose  of  their  lives 

3 — June  22.  ^ 


2  Every -Member  Evangelism 

from  that  day  forward.  And  then  as  he  has 
watched  them  leave  the  service  and  scatter  into  the 
field,  he  has  anticipated  such  results  from  that  hour 
as  the  church  had  never  before  seen. 

But  he  was  doomed  to  sad  and  bitter  disappoint- 
ment. The  enthusiastic  resolutions  of  that  holy 
hour  seemed  to  vanish  ere  the  next  Sunday,  like  a 
mist  before  the  rising  sun. 

Perhaps  he  could  detect  a  little  increased  activity 
on  the  part  of  a  pitiably  small  handful  of  his  most 
earnest  people,  but  he  was  compelled  to  acknowl- 
edge that  little,  if  anything,  of  increased  results  in 
soul-winning  ever  came  from  that  service  which 
had  seemed  to  promise  so  much. 

The  pastor  had  failed! 

Perhaps  this  was  another  failure! 

Why  had  he  failed? 

He  was  certain  there  was  nothing  consciously 
wrong  between  himself  and  his  Lord.  He  was  surq 
of  the  Holy  Spirit's  leading  and  enabling  in  select- 
ing his  theme  and  making  his  appeal.  He  was  con- 
vinced that  in  his  longing  for  a  church  enthusias- 
tically seeking  after  the  lost  he  was  never  more 
honestly  desirous  of  the  glory  of  God. 

And  as  for  his  people,  he  was  certain  they  were 
God's  children.  He  felt  sure  their  response  to  his 
appeal  was  out  of  a  genuine  love  for  Christ  and  a 
lost  world.  And  he  was  convinced  that  they  went 
out  of  that  service  with  a  purpose  to  win  the  lost 
as  honest  as  any  company  of  Christians  ever  had. 
And  yet  little  or  nothing  had  resulted  from  it! 


Introductory  3 

Why  had  that  pastor  failed?  What  had  he  left 
undone?  What  more  could  he  do?  There  cer- 
tainly was  a  reason  for  that  failure,  but  what 
was  it? 

Was  not  the  trouble  something  like  this?  The 
appeal  of  that  consecrated  pastor  was  completely 
successful  in  securing  the  honest  purpose  from  his 
people  to  win  the  lost  to  Christ,  and  his  people  were 
thoroughly  sincere  in  their  determination  to  give 
themselves  to  that  work;  but  as  they  turned  from 
the  church  door  and  faced  their  task,  they  were 
confronted  by  a  great  field — perhaps  one  that  spread 
out  over  a  large  city,  and  the  very  bigness  of  their 
task  bewildered  them.  They  were  not  only  will- 
ing to  go  after  the  lost,  but  were  enthusiastic  in 
their  anticipation  of  results,  but  where,  in  all  that 
great  field,  were  they  to  begin? 

Perhaps  some  of  them  did  try  to  begin — some- 
where, but  the  indefinite  anywhereness  of  their  task, 
the  lack  of  responsibility  for  any  definite  section  of 
the  field,  and  the  sense  of  being  unharnessed  and 
alone  in  the  open,  first  produced  discouragement 
because  the  task  seemed  too  big  for  them,  then  led 
to  delay  because  it  was  all  so  indefinite,  and  finally 
brought  defeat. 

It  was  not  lack  of  a  purpose  so  much  as  lack  of 
a  program  that  accomplished  that  defeat. 

A  purpose  may  start  us  toward  a  task,  and  may 
even  get  us  at  work  on  it,  but  we  can  never  be 
kept  at  work  very  long  without  a  program. 

When  men  undertake  to  run  a  business  of  their 


4  Every -Member  Evangelism 

own,  they  carry  it  on  according  to  a  system,  a 
method,  a  program,  even  to  the  last  detail;  and  the 
Great  Commission  absolutely  demands  that  the  soul- 
winning  work  of  the  Church  be  organized  and 
carried  on  according  to  a  program.  And  when  we 
make  even  a  cursory  study  of  the  Commission  and 
all  the  related  passages  we  find  not  only  what  the 
divine  Program  for  the  work  of  soul-winning  is, 
but  what  the  divine  Purpose  was  in  giving  the 
Church  that  program,  and  also  what  is  the  source 
and  nature  of  the  divine  Power  by  which  the  pro- 
gram is  to  be  carried  out.  We  shall  therefore 
relate  our  study  to  these  three  thoughts. 


CHAPTER  I 
SCRIPTURE  EXPOSITION 

AS  we  study  the  Lord's  Program  for  his  Church, 
we  shall  want  to  know  two  or  three  very 
definite  things  about  it. 

We  shall  need,  first  of  all,  to  know  what  the 
Program  is. 

We  shall  then  be  glad  to  know  if  there  is  a  New 
Testament  illustration  of  the  way  the  Lord  expects 
it  to  be  worked  out. 

We  shall  also  need  to  know  what  provision  the 
Lord  has  made  to  keep  it  in  operation  throughout 
the  Church  Age. 

The  New  Testament  furnishes  abundant  infor- 
mation on  all  these  points,  and  we  therefore  turn 
to  what  it  says. 

/.     The  Program  Unfolded 

As  to  what  the  Program  is,  we  turn  naturally  to 
the  words  of  Christ,  and  especially  to  what  he  said 
to  his  disciples  just  before  his  crucifixion,  and  also 
between  his  resurrection  and  ascension;  for  here, 
if  anywhere,  we  are  likely  to  find  the  sum  of  all 
his  previous  instruction  and  the  outline  of  his  pur- 
poses concerning  the  future  of  his  Church.  And 
as  we  turn  to  the  passages  that  contain  Christ's 
last  words,  we  are  not  disappointed. 
5 


6  Every -Member  Evangelism 

THE    church's    mission 

If  we  set  the  pre-crucifixion  and  pre-ascension 
words  of  Christ  all  down  by  themselves  and  give 
them  careful  study,  we  cannot  fail  to  notice  that 
the  word  "witness"  is  the  key  to  all  of  them. 

And  if  we  analyze  them  we  shall  find  that  wit- 
nessing is  to  be  the  main  work  of  the  whole  Church 
in  the  whole  world  throughout  the  whole  Age.^ 

Notice  how  this  is  all  summed  up  in  the  Great 
Commission  as  Mark^  gives  it  to  us,  with  one  phrase 
from  Matthew  added.^ 

"Go  ye"  is  a  command  to  every  Christian;  that 
is,  to  the  whole  Church. 

"Into  all  the  world'*  certainly  includes  every 
Christian's  personal  world,  for  it  takes  all  the  per- 
sonal worlds  of  all  Christians  scattered  abroad  over 
the  earth  added  together  to  cover  the  geographical 
world.  That  is,  the  whole  Church  is  to  go  into 
the  whole  world. 

"And  preach  the  Gospel,"  if  it  means  anything, 
must  certainly  mean  to  witness,  or  to  tell  the  Good 
News  of  salvation  through  Christ,  and  this  defines 
the  central  activity  of  the  Church.  That  is,  wit- 
nessing is  the  main  work  of  the  whole  Church 
throughout  the  whole  world ;  while  "to  every  crea- 
ture" makes  it  the  individual  work  of  every  Chris- 
tian to  every  unsaved  one. 

And  then  Matthew  adds  Christ's  promise,  "Lo, 

iDr.   Arthur  T.  Pierson  says  that  witnessing  is  the  "whole  work 
of    the    whole   Church    for    the   whole   Age." 
2Mark    6:15.         SMatt.  28:20. 


Scripture    Exposition  7 

I  am  with  you  all  the  days,  even  unto  the  consum- 
mation of  the  age/'^  which  clearly  indicates  that 
this  work  is  to  be  continued  throughout  the  whole 
Age. 

The  Commission  according  to  Mark,  therefore, 
with  one  phrase  from  Matthew,  tells  us  that  wit- 
nessing is  the  iftain  work  of  the  whole  Church  in 
the  whole  world  throughout  the  whole  Age. 

Christ  also  said  just  before  he  ascended  that  this 
witnessing  was  to  be  done  "both"  in  Jerusalem, 
Judaea,  Samaria,  and  to  **the  uttermost  part  of  the 
earth,"^  which  means,  according  to  Dr.  Henry  C. 
Mabie,  that  the  Lord's  people  are  to  witness,  not 
consecutively  from  one  place  to  another,  but  simul- 
taneously in  every  part  of  earth  at  once. 

THE  church's  message 

When  we  turn  to  that  phase  of  the  Commission 
set  forth  by  Luke,  we  have  the  content  of  our  tes- 
timony given  to  us. 

You  recall  that  at  the  close  of  the  day  of  Christ's 
resurrection,  after  he  had  appeared  to  the  two  Em- 
maus  disciples,  he  suddenly  appeared  in  the  midst 
of  the  disciples  who  were  gathered  together  in  Jeru- 
salem discussing  the  news  of  the  resurrection. 

After  showing  his  startled  disciples  his  hands 
and  his  feet,  and  eating  a  piece  of  broiled  fish  to 
convince  them  that  it  was  really  himself,  he  re- 
minded them  of  how  he  had  told  them  of  all  these 
things  before  his  crucifixion,  and  of  how  he  had 
simply  been  fulfilling  what  the  Scriptures  had  fore- 

IMatt.   28:20    (Gr.).         ^Acts    1:8. 


L 


8  Every -Member  Evangelism 

told,  and  then  he  gave  them  the  content  of  their 
message — ^and  ours — to  a  lost  world.^ 

**Ye  are  witnesses  of  these  things/'  said  Christ, 
which  refers  back  to  what  he  had  just  been  saying. 
And  as  we  analyze  what  he  said,  we  find  that  our 
witnessing  has  to  do  with  three  distinct  themes : 

First,  we  are  to  set  forth  the  testimony  of  Scrip- 
ture to  Christ,  and  show  how  all  the  things  to  which 
Scripture  witnesses  concerning  him  either  have  been 
or  will  yet  be  fulfilled. 

Again,  we  are  to  bear  witness  to  his  unique  suf- 
ferings, his  atoning  death,  and  his  triumphant  res- 
urrection. 

Still  further,  we  are  to  tell  everywhere  the  Good 
News  of  the  remission  of  sins  for  all  who  repent 
and  believe. 

Then  in  the  last  words  he  spoke  before  he  as- 
cended, Christ  summed  up  the  message  of  the 
Church  in  a  single  sentence,  when  he  said:  "Ye 
shall  be  witnesses  unto  Me/'  Not  simply  to  a  lot 
of  information  about  him,  however  useful  in  its 
place,  but  to  Christ  himself. 

THE  church's  motives 

In  immediate  connection  with  the  content  of  our 
testimony  is  set  down  Christ's  promise  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,^  who  is  to  be  our  enablement  in  our  testi- 
mony, and  his  explicit  command  to  the  disciples  to 
wait  till  the  Holy  Spirit  had  come  to  begin  his  min- 
istry in  them  before  they  should  start  out  on  their 
ministry  of  witnessing. 

^Luke  24:36-48.     ='Luke  24:49. 


ScriptVire    Exposition  ? 

This  instruction  of  Christ's  to  wait  for  the  Holy- 
Spirit  is  of  the  utmost  significance,  for  it  indicates 
beyond  all  question  that  we  not  only  will  not,  but 
even  cannot  obey  the  Great  Commission  apart  from 
the  power  of  the  Spirit. 

This  is  set  forth  in  symbol  in  a  most  significant 
way  in  the  details  that  John  tells  us  of  what  hap- 
pened on  the  evening  of  the  resurrection  day.^ 

As  Christ  suddenly  appeared  in  the  midst  of  the 
assembled  disciples  without  a  door  being  opened, 
the  first  thing  he  did  was  to  show  them  his  wounded 
hands  and  side — the  visible  evidences  of  his  atoning 
work.  This  was  to  be  the  heart  of  their  testimony 
to  him. 

Then  he  commanded  them  to  go,  even  as  his 
Father  had  sent  him.  This  was  his  command  to 
go  with  their  testimony. 

But  he  does  not  stop  there.  The  content  of  their 
testimony  had  been  indicated,  and  they  had  been 
commanded  to  go  with  it,  but  Christ  knew  they 
would  never  go  simply  under  the  impulse  of  a  com- 
mand. So  he  breathed  on  them  and  said:  "Re- 
ceive ye  the  Holy  Spirit" — a  symbolic  action  look- 
ing forward  to  Pentecost.  And  so  imperative  was 
his  instruction  just  before  he  ascended  to  wait  for 
the  empowering  of  the  Spirit  that  we  know,  beyond 
peradventure,  that  successful  witnessing  apart  from 
that  empowering  is  an  utter  impossibility. 

ijohn   20:19-23. 


10  Every -Member  Evangelism 

PRAYER   AND   POWER 

There  is  one  other  thing  that  Hes  behind  all  this. 
While  it  does  not  appear  in  the  Great  Commission 
in  so  many  words,  yet  it  saturates  the  whole  min- 
istry of  Christ,  and  he  also  urges  his  disciples  to  it 
by  example,  exhortation,  and  command.  That 
fundamental  thing  is  prayer.  The  mechanics  of 
the  most  perfect  program  possible,  even  of  a  pro- 
gram that  God  himself  lays  out,  are  utterly  worth- 
less apart  from  the  divine  dynamics.  And  prayer 
alone  makes  it  possible  for  us  to  be  taken  hold  upon 
by  the  divine  dynamics.  **Men  ought  always  to 
pray  and  not  to  faint,"  said  Christ.^  Only  so  will 
they  always  be  living  channels  of  that  message  of 
an  atoning  Saviour  from  sin,  thereby  living  in  con- 
stant obedience  to  the  Great  Commission. 

THE  COMPLETE  CHURCH   PROGRAM 

The  Great  Commission,  therefore,  when  we  sum 
it  up,  is  a  personal  command  to  every  Christian  to 
go  into  every  nook  and  corner  of  his  personal 
world,  and  seek,  by  witnessing  in  the  power  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  to  the  Good  News  of  God's  saving 
grace  through  the  shed  blood  of  Christ,  to  win  every 
lost  soul  in  his  personal  world  to  salvation.  We 
are  also  so  to  scatter  over  the  inhabited  earth,  as 
the  providence  of  God  leads  and  opens  the  way, 
that  the  whole  world  will  be  continuously  and  simul- 
taneously evangelized.     With  this  agrees  every  pas- 


iLuke    18:1. 


Scripture    Exposition  11 

sage  that  has  any  bearing  on  the  mission  of  the 
Church.  This  defines  with  the  utmost  clearness 
what  the  Lord's  Program  for  his  Church  is. 

//.     The  Program  Illustrated 

The  next  thing  we  want  to  know  is  whether  the 
Lord  has  given  us  a  historical  illustration  of  this 
Program  actually  at  work,  and  we  do  not  need  to 
look  far  to  find  one.  For  the  Holy  Spirit  gave  us 
the  pattern  of  the  manner  in  which  this  Program 
is  to  be  carried  out  in  the  events  immediately  sur- 
rounding the  Day  of  Pentecost.  These  events  were 
the  divinely  executed  pattern  of  what  the  Lord  pur- 
posed to  keep  doing  through  the  Church  during  the 
whole  Church  Age.  To  find  the  divine  significance 
of  these  events,  therefore,  will  be  to  have  set  before 
us  what  the  Church  is  expected  to  be  doing  to-day. 
And  as  added  details  unfold  before  us  as  we  watch 
how  the  Holy  Spirit  led  and  empowered  the  dis- 
ciples to  carry  out  Christ's  command  exactly  as  he 
gave  it,  no  doubt  can  be  left  in  our  minds  as  to 
precisely  what  that  Program  is. 

THE    PLACE    OF    PRAYER 

As  the  foundation  and  preparation  for  all  the 
Holy  Spirit  was  to  do  in  the  disciples  and  for  the 
lost  when  he  began  his  official  ministry  on  earth,  a 
period  of  time  was  given  over  entirely  to  prayer. 
This  period  was  ten  days  in  this  instance,  but  the 
number  of  days  means  nothing  except  that  it  was 
that  long  before  the  Holy  Spirit  came  to  begin  his 
official  mission.     The  whole  emphasis  must  be  on 


12  Every -Member  Evangelism 

the  praying.  This  alone  could  prepare  their  hearts 
for  what  God  was  to  do  in  them  and  through  them, 
and  it  surely  could  not  have  been  altogether  without 
some  bearing  on  the  lost  to  whom  they  were  to  wit- 
ness, even  though  the  Holy  Spirit  had  not  yet  come. 
At  any  rate,  it  is  certain  that  prayer,  since  the  Holy 
Spirit  has  come,  opens  the  pathway  both  for  the 
divine  preparation  of  the  Christian's  heart  and  the 
divine  operation  in  the  sinner's  heart. 

POWER   FOR   WITNESSING 

Then  came  the  events  of  Pentecost.^  The  Lord 
had  already  indicated  that  he  intended  the  disciples 
to  do  their  witnessing  in  a  systematic  fashion  when 
he  divided  the  field  into  the  broad  districts  of  Jeru- 
salem, Judaea,  Samaria,  and  "the  uttermost  part  of 
the  earth,"  and  directed  them  to  witness  simul- 
taneously in  all  of  them.  And  so  it  could  not  have 
been  without  this  in  view  that  he  commanded  them 
to  wait  in  Jerusalem  for  the  Holy  Spirit  to  start 
them  on  this  work,  for  at  Jerusalem  were  living 
"men  out  of  every  nation  under  heaven,"^  making 
it  possible  to  witness  simultaneously  to  representa- 
tives of  every  district  he  had  named,  from  Jeru- 
salem to  "the  uttermost  part  of  the  earth."  This 
providence  is  very  striking. 

Then  when  the  Holy  Spirit  came,  took  posses- 
sion of  the  yielded  disciples,  and  began  working  out 
through  them  the  divine  Programi,  they  were  all  so 
possessed  by  the  Spirit  as  to  be  empowered  to  speak 
in  the  languages  of  "every  nation  under  heaven." 

^Acts  2.     ^Acts  2:5. 


Scripture    Exposition  13 

The  direct  connection  between  this  miracle  and 
the  Great  Commission  cannot  be  missed.  It  lies  on 
the  surface.  The  disciples  were  enabled  by  it  to 
begin  witnessing  at  once  and  simultaneously  to 
every  nation  representatively,  from  Jerusalem  to 
those  farthest  away.  By  it  the  Holy  Spirit  indi- 
cated what  he  intended  should  actually  be  done  in 
all  the  nations  themselves,  as  soon  as  the  way  was 
providentially  opened  for  the  disciples  to  reach 
them,  and  what  he  intended  should  continue  to  be 
done  throughout  the  Age. 

INFORMAL   WITNESSING   BY  ALL 

The  next  step  was  to  go  to  the  lost  with  their 
testimony.  They  were  therefore  impelled  by  the 
Holy  Spirit  to  go  where  the  lost  were.  Note  this 
well.  They  did  not  go  to  some  public  meeting- 
place  and  invite  the  people  to  come  and  hear  their 
testimony,  they  took  their  testimony  to  the  people. 

As  soon  as  the  marvel  of  their  miraculous  speech 
was  noised  abroad,  great  crowds  from  everywhere 
came  together  and  listened  with  amazement,  as  the 
entire  one  hundred  and  twenty  disciples,  both  men 
and  women,  praised  God  and  witnessed  to  las 
mighty  works  in  at  least  fifteen  different  languages. 

Notice  that  they  were  not  preaching,  for  there 
were  many  among  them — the  women,  for  instance, 
as  well  as  others — who  were  not  called  of  God  to 
public  preaching  and  teaching.  They  were  nntness- 
ing,  and  they  were  all  witnessing  in  the  midst  of  a 
great  company  of  the  lost. 


14  Every -Member  Evangelism 

How  long  this  continued  there  is  no  means  of 
telling,  but  the  deep  interest  it  aroused  evidently 
produced  such  consciousness  and  conviction  of  sin 
that  finally  a  climax  of  decision  became  possible. 

FORMAL   WITNESSING  BY  ONE 

Then  it  was,  and  not  before,  that  the  Holy  Spirit 
introduced  the  next  step  in  the  divine  Program. 
He  selected  Peter,  set  him  forth  before  a  multitude 
of  sinners  made  eager  to  listen  by  the  private  wit- 
nessing, and  spoke  through  him  the  marvelous  mes- 
sage of  that  first  sermon  of  this  present  Age.  This 
proved  to  be  such  a  climax  to  the  previous  witness- 
ing as  resulted  in  the  decision  of  three  thousand  of 
that  crowd  to  receive  the  crucified  but  risen  and 
ascended  Jesus  as  their  Messiah  and  Saviour. 

Our  misconceptions  of  this  perfectly  plain  state- 
ment of  events  have  worked  havoc  with  our  under- 
standing of  the  Great  Commission.  It  is  so  widely 
imagined  that  those  three  thousand  converts  were 
brought  to  Christ  by  Peter's  sermon  alone  that 
many  almost  think  it  is  in  the  New  Testament  in 
so  many  words.  But  nothing  could  be  farther  from 
the  truth.  It  was  the  private  witnessing  of  all  the 
disciples,  reaching  its  climax  and  culmination  in  the 
public  witnessing  of  one  disciple,  that  brought  the 
results  of  that  day.  In  other  words,  Peter's  ser- 
mon was  the  climax  of  that  which  had  preceded; 
and  if  the  private  witnessing  had  not  preceded  the 
public  witnessing,  there  is  not  the  least  likelihood 
that  any  such  results  would  have  followed. 


Scripture    Exposition  15 

WITNESSING  TO   CHRIST 

Now  notice  the  theme  of  Peter's  testimony.  After 
explaining  that  this  marvelous  manifestation  was  of 
God,  he  begins  immediately  to  preach  the  Christ 
whom  they  had  crucified  and  God  had  raised  from 
the  dead.  And  he  sets  forth  his  theme  with  such 
masterly, — ^yes,  such  superhuman — skill,  that  we  are 
forced  to  the  conclusion  that  either  the  Holy  Spirit 
spoke  the  message  through  the  yielded  disciple,  or 
else  that  Peter  was  more  than  a  man. 

The  Messiahship  and  Lordship  of  this  Jesus 
whom  they  had  slain  was  the  thing  he  started  out 
to  prove.  But  he  diJ  not  mention  it  until  he  had 
proved  it,  and  then  it  was  irresistible. 

The  proof  consisted  of  three  arguments.  First 
he  appealed  to  the  miracles  and  wonders  and  signs 
which  God  wrought  in  their  presence,  and  with 
which  his  audience  was  familiar,  and  as  he  did  so 
he  referred  to  him  through  whom  God  wrought 
them  as  a  **man,"  thus  avoiding  what  must  certainly 
have  stirred  up  their  prejudices  and  closed  their 
minds  to  all  he  was  yet  to  say. 

Then  he  turns  to  Scripture  exposition,  speaking 
first  of  the  death  of  this  **man''  and  of  their  com- 
plicity in  that  death,  and  then  showing  what  Scrip- 
ture says  about  the  resurrection  of  their  promised 
Messiah,  proving  that  the  Messiah  could  not  be  held 
by  death  because  he  was  the  "Holy  One"  of  God. 
This  very  skilfully  left  the  inference  that  their 
Messiah  must  have  died  or  It  would  be  impossible 
for  God  to  raise  him  from  the  dead,  and  opened 


16  Every -Member  Evangelism 

the  way  for  him  to  identify  this  "man"  who  had 
been  slain  w^ith  their  Messiah.  Then  he  boldly  an- 
nounces that  this  Jesus  whom  they  had  crucified 
God  had  raised  from  the  dead,  and  that  they  all 
were  witnesses  of  that  fact.  But  he  does  not  yet 
announce  him  as  their  Messiah. 

He  next  turns  to  the  manifestations  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  which  are  taking  place  before  them  at  that 
moment,  and  testifies  that  this  Jesus  whom  God 
had  raised  from  the  dead  had  also  been  exalted  to 
the  right  hand  of  God,  and  that  he  was  the  one  who 
had  shed  forth  the  manifestation  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
which  had  so  amazed  them. 

The  conclusion  was  inevitable.  This  same  Jesus 
whom  they  had  crucified,  God  had  made  both  Lord 
and  Messiah. 

The  result  was  that  whatever  consciousness  of 
sin  and  personal  concern  had  already  been  aroused 
through  the  personal  testimony  of  the  one  hundred 
and  twenty  was  now  brought  to  so  sharp  a  climax 
that  it  required  decision  of  some  sort.  They  were 
so  pricked  in  the  heart  that  they  began  to  ask, 
*What  shall  we  do?" 

Then  Peter  and  the  rest  of  them  did  such  per- 
sonal work  among  them  as  resulted  in  three  thou- 
sand of  them  accepting  this  Jesus  as  their  Messiah, 
and  publicly  confessing  their  acceptance  by  baptism. 

Notice  carefully  that  Christ  crucified  and  raised 
again  was  the  theme  of  Peter's  testimony,  and  that 
he  gave  his  testimony  altogether  in  the  enabling  of 


Scripture    Exposition  17 

the  Holy  Spirit.     Thus  far  the  divine  Program  has 
been  followed  in  detail. 

WITNESSING  EVERYWHERE 

It  will  be  recalled  that  later  on  the  disciples  failed 
to  follow  Christ  in  his  command  to  scatter  abroad 
and  tell  the  Good  News  everywhere,  and  so  the 
Lord  let  a  little  persecution  slip  through  the  aper- 
ture of  his  permission  and  drove  them  out. 

The  record  of  this  persecution  and  its  results, 
which  the  Holy  Spirit  has  written  for  us,  is  most 
significant.  He  tells  us  that  they  that  were  scat- 
tered abroad  went  everywhere  preaching  the  Gos- 
pel, "except  the  apostles."'^  That  is,  the  "laymen" 
went  everywhere  like  living  firebrands,  setting 
things  on  fire  wherever  they  went,  while  the 
*'clergy"  stayed  behind.  The  way  in  which  the 
Holy  Spirit  has  recorded  this  bit  of  early  history, 
as  well  as  the  history  itself  from  which  the  record 
was  made,  gives  us  unmistakable  evidence  that  the 
Lord  intends  the  rank  and  file  of  the  Church  to  go 
everywhere  the  Lord's  providence  places  them, 
bearing  constant  witness  to  the  saving  grace  of 
God. 

We  are  now  where  we  can  look  back  on  the  his- 
torical illustration  of  the  divine  Program.  We  can 
now  see  precisely  how  the  Lord  intends  the  Great 
Commission  should  be  carried  out.  The  one  main 
business  of  the  Church  is  to  be  witnessing ;  the  wit- 
nessing is  to  be  both  private  and  public,  the  private 
to  be  done  by  all,  and  the  public  to  be  done  by  those 


»Acts  8:1. 
3 


18  Every- Member  Evangelism 

whom  the  Holy  Spirit  selects;  the  private  witness- 
ing is  intended  to  bring  about  such  a  condition  of 
heart  as  shall  open  the  way  for  a  climax  of  decision 
under  the  influence  of  the  public  witnessing;  the 
theme  of  the  testimony  is  to  be  Christ  himself  in  all 
that  he  is  and  does  for  the  salvation  of  lost  men; 
the  witnessing  is  to  be  undertaken  only  at  the  lead- 
ing and  under  the  power  and  enabling  of  the  Holy 
Spirit;  and  the  spirit  of  prayer  and  praise  is  to  sat- 
urate everything  that  is  done.  This  is  the  exact 
meaning  of  the  Great  Commission,  some  of  the 
important  details  being  given  added  significance  in 
the  historical  events  we  have  been  studying. 

///.     The  Program  Perpetuated 

We  are  now  much  interested  to  know  what  pro- 
vision the  Lord  has  made  to  keep  this  Program  in 
successful  operation  throughout  the  Church  Age. 

Our  information  on  this  subject  we  find,  quite 
naturally,  in  the  very  heart  of  that  great  body  of 
truth  which  the  Lord  gave  us  through  Paul,  the 
great  Apostle  to  the  Church. 

Christ's  gifts  to  his  church 

In  Ephesians  4:11-16  Paul  is  setting  forth  the 
gifts  which  the  ascended  Christ  gave  his  Church, 
and  what  he  gave  them  for.  Among  these  gifts  are 
not  only  apostles  and  prophets,  but  also  evangelists 
and  pastors  and  teachers. 

The  reason  he  set  these  gifts  in  his  Church  comes 
out  with  great  clearness  when  we  consult  the  vari- 


Scripture    Exposition  19 

ous  versions.  In  the  Authorized  Version,  the  mean- 
ing of  verse  12  is  obscured.  It  tells  us  that  apostles, 
prophets,  evangelists,  and  pastors  and  teachers  were 
given  "for  the  perfecting  of  the  saints,  for  the 
w^ork  of  the  ministry,"  leaving  the  impression  on 
the  reader  that  the  "perfecting  of  the  saints"  and 
the  "work  of  the  ministry"  are  two  separate  and 
distinct  phases  of  the  one  work  of  apostles,  proph- 
ets, evangelists,  and  pastors  and  teachers. 

But  the  1911  Bible  says  that  these  gifts  were 
given  to  the  Church  for  "the  perfecting  of  the  saints 
for  the  doing  of  service." 

Rotherham  puts  it,  "With  a  view  to  the  fitting 
of  the  saints  for  the  work  of  ministering." 

Conybeare  and  Howson  translate  it,  "For  the 
perfecting  of  God's  people  in  their  appointed 
service." 

Weymouth  gives  it,  "In  order  fully  to  equip  his 
people  for  the  work  of  serving." 

And  Dr.  Arthur  T.  Pierson  says  that  these  gifts 
were  given  to  the  Church  "in  order  to  perfect  the 
saints  in  serviceableness." 

It  is  clear,  therefore,  that  the  Lord's  people  have 
an  appointed  ministry  or  service,  and  that  he  has 
given  apostles,  prophets,  evangelists,  and  pastors 
and  teachers  to  perfect  them  in  that  service. 

And  when  we  follow  this  passage  further  to 
learn  what  that  service  is,  all  translations  agree  that 
it  is  the  building  up  of  the  body  of  Christ,  or  the 
growth  of  the  Church,  and  that  this  ministry  is  to 


20  Every- Member  Evangelism 

continue  until  the  Church  comes  to  a  full-grown 
man.^ 

Of  what  this  growth  consists  will  be  brought 
out  with  unmistakable  clearness  if  we  analyze  the 
nature  of  our  service. 

HOW  THE  CHURCH  GROWS 

Both  evangelists  and  pastors  and  teachers  have 
been  set  in  the  Church  to  perfect  the  Lord's  people 
in  the  doing  of  a  certain  service.  What  kind  of 
service  is  it? 

It  must  be  such  as  will  build  up  the  body  of 
Christ,  which  is  a  spiritual  body,  and  so  it  must 
be  spiritual  service. 

To  whom  is  this  service  to  be  rendered? 

It  cannot  be  turned  inward  and  rendered  to  the 
Church  alone  with  no  reference  to  those  outside, 
for  it  would  then  be  selfish  and  would  cease  to  be 
spiritual.  It  would  therefore  be  incapable  of  build- 
ing up  the  body  of  Christ.  It  must  be  rendered 
not  simply  to  those  inside  the  Church,  but  especially 
to  those  outside. 

But  what  sort  of  spiritual  service  can  be  rendered 
to  those  outside  the  Church? 

It  must  be  such  a  service  as  will  meet  their  spir- 
itual needs. 

What  are  their  spiritual  needs? 

They  are  spiritually  "dead  in  trespasses  and  sins,'* 
and  so  their  one  all-inclusive  spiritual  need  while 
they  are  in  that  condition  is  life. 


^Eph.  4:12-16. 


Scripture    Exposition  21 

What  sort  of  service  will  meet  that  need? 

Such  service  as  will  result  in  bringing  them  out 
of  spiritual  death  into  spiritual  life.  In  the  nature 
of  the  case,  we  can  render  them  no  other  spiritual 
service  until  we  have  first  rendered  this  one.  Noth- 
ing of  physical  value  can  be  done  for  those  who 
are  physically  dead  except  to  bring  them  to  physical 
life,  and  it  is  equally  impossible  to  do  anything  of 
spiritual  value  for  those  who  are  spiritually  dead 
except  to  bring  them  to  spiritual  life.  There  must 
be  spiritual  life  first,  and  then  spiritual  values  will 
become  real  and  tangible. 

What  kind  of  service  will  result  in  bringing  spir- 
itual life  to  the  dead? 

The  kind  that  brings  to  them  him  who  was  dead 
and  is  alive  for  evermore — him  who  is  "the  resur- 
rection and  the  life"  for  all  who  are  dead  in  tres- 
passes and  sins,  and  that  leads  them  to  receive  life 
by  receiving  him. 

What  kind  of  service  will  do  this? 

Witnessing  to  him  who  is  the  Lord  of  life,  in 
such  compelling  earnestness  and  spiritual  power 
as  will  induce  the  spiritually  dead  to  receive  the 
life  he  offers. 

Will  this  kind  of  service  build  up  the  body  of 
Christ? 

It  is  the  only  kind  that  will.  For  it  is  certainly 
the  only  service  that  will  build  up  the  Church  in 
numbers,  and  it  is  also  the  only  service  that  will 
produce  real  and  lasting  spiritual  growth  in  the 
members.     Other  forms  of  service  may  temporarily 


22  Every -Member  Evangelism 

stimulate  a  church  to  certain  kinds  of  activity,  but 
only  the  work  of  soul-winning  will  continuously 
build  a  church  in  real  vitality.  All  over  the  land 
to-day  there  are  churches  that  are  practically  pow- 
erless and  fruitless  because  they  are  giving  them- 
selves over  to  multiplied  forms  of  service  which  are 
not  a  direct  appeal  to  the  lost  to  receive  Christ. 
The  church  that  makes  that  appeal  its  one  great 
business  is  always  prosperous  and  powerful,  and  its 
growth  is  both  certain  in  numbers  and  symmetrical 
in  spiritual  character. 

It  is  as  plainly  taught  In  this  passage  as  language 
can  make  it  that  the  Lord  gave  evangelists  and 
pastors  and  teachers  to  his  people  to  train  and  per- 
fect them  in  the  work  of  soul-winning.  Pastors 
and  evangelists  are  not  appointed  to  be  the  profes- 
sional soul-winners  of  the  Church,  but  "for  the 
perfecting  of  God's  people  in  their  appointed  serv- 
ice'* of  witnessing  and  soul-winning.  The  pastor- 
ate is  not  a  religious  lectureship;  it  is  a  spiritual 
generalship.  And  an  evangelist  is  not  to  go  to  a 
field  and  reap  the  harvest  for  a  church  while  they 
look  on  and  watch  him  do  it,  but  he  is  to  lead,  in- 
struct, and  direct  the  harvesters  as  they  go  out  into 
the  field  and  gather  in  the  harvest  themselves. 

THE   PASTOR  AS   AN   OVERSEER 

There  is  another  term  in  the  New  Testament 
that  brings  out  this  truth  with  great  clearness.  The 
Lord  has  said  to  all  pastors  through  Paul,  "Take 
heed  therefore  unto  yourselves,  and  to  all  the  flock, 


Scripture    Exposition  23 

over  the  which  the  Holy  Ghost  hath  made  you  over- 
seers/'^ Thayer's  Greek  lexicon  defines  the  word 
from  which  "overseer"  comes  as,  "a  man  charged 
with  the  duty  of  seeing  that  things  to  be  done  by 
others  are  done  rightly";  a  "superintendent." 

The  word  also  carries  the  meaning  of  watch-care 
and  shepherding,  as  a  shepherd  feeds  and  cares  for 
his  flock. 

This  defines  the  double  work  of  the  pastor.  He 
is  to  feed  his  people  and  give  them  such  watch-care 
as  will  make  them  strong  and  vigorous  for  their 
service  of  soul-winning,  and  he  is  to  be  their  over- 
seer, or  superintendent,  in  that  service,  seeing  that 
they  do  that  work  and  guiding  them  wherever  they 
may  need  it,  that  they  may  do  it  successfully. 

This  twofold  function  of  the  pastoral  office  also 
comes  out  in  the  list  of  Christ's  gifts  to  his  Church 
which  we  have  been  studying.  After  naming 
apostles,  prophets  and  evangelists,  he  names  the  one 
who  is  to  have  direct  and  continuous  charge  of  a 
local  body  of  believers,  and  calls  him  a  "pastor  and 
teacher."  As  a  pastor,  or  shepherd,  as  that  word 
means,  he  is  to  feed  the  people  and  give  them  such 
watchful  care  as  shall  keep  them  fit  for  their  ap- 
pointed service ;  as  a  teacher  he  is  to  give  them  not 
simply  theoretical  but  especially  practical  instruction 
to  the  point  of  success  in  their  appointed  service. 

That  the  individual  members  may  become  suc- 
cessful in  winning  the  lost  is  therefore  the  one  all- 
inclusive   reason    why   pastors   were   given   to   the 

^Acts   20:28. 


24  Every- Member  Evangelism 

Church.     The  shepherding  and  the  superintending 
both  have  that  as  their  main  object. 

THE   pastor's    main    BUSINESS 

The  conclusion  is  inevitable.  The  main  business 
of  the  pastor  is  not  the  preparation  and  delivery  of 
sermons  and  addresses  so  much  as  the  development, 
vi^hether  by  sermon  or  by  any  other  method,  of 
every  member  in  his  church  into  a  soul-winner. 
His  sermons — at  least  those  to  Christians — ought 
always  to  have  this  in  view. 

Not  that  either  the  pastor  or  his  people  have  no 
teaching  ministry  which  it  is  possible  to  distin- 
guish from  simple  witnessing,  but  that  all  such 
ministry  is  to  have  preparation  for  soul-winning 
witnessing,  rather  than  the  simple  impartation  of 
instruction  and  information,  as  its  ultimate  object. 
Such  witnessing  to  Christ  as  will  bring  the  lost  to 
him  is  the  main  stream  of  Christian  service  into 
which  all  other  streams  of  Christian  instruction  and 
activity  must  be  made  to  flow.  Indeed,  witnessing 
to  Christ  is  the  very  essence  of  the  building  up 
ministry  of  the  Word,  for  he  who  is  the  theme  of 
the  Word  is  the  Bread  of  God  by  which  we  grow 
in  grace  and  knowledge.  And  growth  is  both  cer- 
tain and  normal  only  when  in  the  strength  of  that 
Bread  we  go  out  to  the  lost  and  give  them  also  to 
eat.  Food  is  for  strength,  and  strength  is  for  serv- 
ice, and  if  the  strength  we  get  from  that  Bread  is 
not  used  in  service,  the^-^,  will  be  little  building  up 
in  the  "most  holy  faith."     In  the  teaching  ministry 


Scripture    Exposition  25 

of  the  pastor,  therefore,  he  is  to  direct  it  all  toward 
securing  in  his  people  ever-increasing  results  in 
soul-winning. 

One  of  the  most  practical  as  well  as  successful 
ways  of  doing  this  is  the  method  a  factory  super- 
intendent would  use  with  a  beginner  who  knew 
little  or  nothing  about  his  job.  He  would  actually 
do  the  work  and  teach  the  beginner  how.  He  would 
encourage  him  to  do  it  himself,  and  help  him  in  the 
uncertain  places  until  he  learned  how. 

Precisely  so  the  Lord  has  given  every  pastor  to 
his  Church  that  he  may  train  the  members  in  soul- 
winning,  even  to  the  point  of  going  right  out  on  to 
the  field  with  them  and  doing  it  by  their  side,  or 
helping  them  to  do  it  until  they  learn  how,  using 
the  skilled  ones  in  turn  to  help  train  beginners,  until 
there  is  a  church  full  of  skilled  and  successful  soul- 
winners. 

No  one  can  ever  learn  how  to  win  the  lost  by 
studying  books  or  listening  to  sermons  and  ad- 
dresses. He  can  fill  his  mind  with  the  Word  of 
God  by  study,  as  he  certainly  should  do,  and  he 
can  get  suggestions  from  others  as  to  how  to  deal 
with  various  classes  of  the  lost,  but  when  it  comes 
to  actually  knowing  how  to  win  a  soul  to  Christ, 
he  can  learn  how  only  by  going  out  into  the  field 
and   doing  it. 

WHAT    ABOUT    SOCIAL    SERVICE? 

By  this  time  some  reader  is  asking  if  social  serv- 
ice has  no  place  in  the  work  of  the  Church. 


26  Every -Member  Evangelism 

That  depends  altogether  on  what  is  meant  by 
social  service.  There  is  so  much  hazy  and  nebu- 
lous talk  about  it,  even  among  social  service  ex- 
perts, that  the  only  way  to  reach  any  satisfactory 
answer  is  to  get  back  to  the  definitions  of  funda- 
mental things  and  then  do  a  little  analyzing. 

The  Church  is  a  distinct  and  unique  gift  of  God 
to  the  world.  It  occupies  a  place  in  the  world 
that  nothing  else  can  possibly  occupy,  and  the 
Church  itself  can  occupy  the  place  of  nothing  else 
whatsoever. 

More  than  two  thousand  years  before  the  Church, 
God  gave  mankind  human  Government.  Its  place 
in  the  world  is  also  unique  and  very  definite,  and 
it  can  neither  let  anything  else  come  into  its  place, 
nor  take  the  place  of  anything  else. 

Each  of  these  institutions  has  its  own  divinely 
given  task  to  perform,  and  each  one  functions  in 
its  own  distinct  way. 

The  mission  of  the  state  is  to  be  a  terror  to  evil- 
doers against  human  temporal  welfare,^  and  it  func- 
tions, especially  under  democracy,  through  its  cit- 
izenship. 

The  mission  of  the  Church  is  to  proclaim  for- 
giveness, through  the  blood  of  Christ,  to  sinners 
against  God,  and  it  functions  through  its  member- 
ship. 

Now  there  are,  broadly  speaking,  two  distinct 
forms  of  human  welfare  work  being  advocated  to- 
day under  the  one  name  of  social  service.     Few  if 

iGen.  9:5,  6.     Rom.   13:1-7. 


Scripture    Exposition  27 

any  of  its  advocates  seem  to  realize  this,  but  the 
distinction  can  be  seen  at  a  glance  as  soon  as  atten- 
tion is  called  to  it. 

There  is  the  kind  that  has  to  do  with  equity, 
righteousness,  and  justice  in  human  relationships. 
The  official  Social  Service  Program  of  the  Federal 
Council  of  the  Churches  of  Christ  in  America,  v^ith 
its  sixteen  items,  is  an  example. 

There  is  also  the  kind  that  has  to  do  with  the 
direct  and  immediate  relief  of  human  suffering, 
especially  that  caused  by  sickness,  poverty,  misfor- 
tune and  like  conditions. 

Now  recall  that  the  state  is  set  in  the  world  to 
be  a  terror  to  evildoers  against  temporal  human 
welfare.  How  can  it  properly  function  and  accom- 
plish this  mission?  It  can  do  so  only  by  the 
administration  of  equity,  righteousness,  and  justice. 
This  is  precisely  why  God  gave  to  Noah,  earth's 
first  divinely  appointed  governor,  the  sword  of  the 
magistrate,  and  instructed  him  to  administer  human 
government  on  the  divine  behalf,  on  the  principles 
of  justice  and  righteousness;  and  it  is  also  why 
these  same  principles  were  reiterated  and  expanded 
in  defining  the  functions  of  government  in  the  13th 
chapter  of  Romans.  The  first  kind  of  social  serv- 
ice named  above  is,  therefore,  the  mission  of  the 
state  alone,  and  the  Church  as  such  has  no  func- 
tions to  perform  in  that  realm.  Every  Christian  as 
a  citizen  ought  always  to  act  on  principles  of  right- 
eousness and  equity  toward  his  fellow-citizens,  and 
to  help  his  governmjent  to  act  on  the  same  principles, 


28  Every -Member  Evangelism 

but  the  Church  as  a  corporate  body  has  no  mission  in 
the  sphere  of  officially  seeking  to  get  righteousness 
and  equity  administered. 

Recall  again  that  the  Church  is  set  in  the  world 
to  win  the  lost  to  Christ.  Anything  that  will  open 
the  way  for  more  effective  witnessing  to  Christ  is 
therefore  not  out  of  harmony  with  the  mission  of 
the  Church,  provided  it  has  not  already  been  dele- 
gated to  the  state  as  a  matter  of  equity  and  justice. 
That  kind  of  social  service  that  is  in  the  nature  of 
philanthropy  is,  consequently,  not  out  of  place  in 
the  work  of  the  Church,  provided  always  that  it  is 
used  as  a  direct  and  immediate  means  of  opening 
the  way  for  more  effective  witnessing  to  Christ 
than  would  otherwise  be  possible.  And  so  the  sec- 
ond kind  of  social  service  named  above  may  prop- 
erly be  included  in  the  mission  of  the  Church  so 
long  as  it  is  used  as  a  direct  means  of  opening  the 
way  to  soul-winning.  The  moment  it  descends  to  a 
mere  sympathetic  and  humanitarian  relief  of  human 
need^  with  no  reference  to  direct  soul-winning 
work,  it  ceases  to  be  a  proper  activity  of  the 
Church  as  such. 

"The  poor  always  ye  have  with  you"  (John 
13:8),  said  Christ  when  he  was  on  earth,  and  he 
himself  had  great  compassion  for  the  sick  and  af- 
flicted. But  you  will  notice  that  he  only  began  at  the 
blind  man's  eyes,  the  lame  man's  feet,  and  the  deaf 
man's  ears,  and  that  then  he  kept  on  going,  until  he 
got  to  their  sin  and  gave  them  forgiveness.  Soul-win- 
ning witnessing  to  Christ  is  the  only  possible  war- 


Scripture    Exposition  29 

rant  for  even  this  kind  of  social  service  being  done 
by  the  Church.  Indeed,  it  is  very  striking,  to  say 
the  least,  that  so  far  as  example  goes  there  is  no 
New  Testament  warrant  for  philanthropic  work 
by  the  Church  in  its  corporate  capacity  except  to 
those  within  the  Church  itself. 

There  is  one  thing  about  social  service  of  every 
kind  that  must  never  be  forgotten.  Like  civiliza- 
tion and  education,  it  is  but  the  by-product  of  evan- 
gelism. Just  as  a  by-product  is  impossible,  there- 
fore, apart  from  the  main  product,  so  permanent 
civic  and  social  betterment  is  utterly  impossible 
apart  from  the  winning  of  the  lost  to  Christ.  And 
as  the  only  way  to  get  more  by-product  is  to  pro- 
duce more  of  the  main  product,  just  so  the  only 
way  to  get  an  increase  in  any  kind  of  social  service 
whatever  is  to  intensify  the  work  of  evangelism. 
And  so  those  churches  that  are  turning  aside  to 
social  service  as  a  program  are  doing  the  very  thing 
that  tends  to  kill  all  forms  of  social  service  from 
the  earth. 

The  main  work  of  the  whole  Church  in  the  whole 
world  throughout  the  whole  Age  is  witnessing  to 
the  salvation  there  is  in  Christ.  Anything  outside 
of  this  forfeits  the  promised  presence  and  blessing 
of  him  who  said,  "Lo,  I  am  with  you  all  the  days, 
even  unto  the  consummation  of  the  Age."  (Matt. 
28:20  Gr.) 


CHAPTER  II 
PRACTICAL  APPLICATION 

WE  have  before  us  now  the  details  of  the 
divine  Program,  which  Christ  gave  to  his 
disciples  before  he  went  away,  and  which  the  Holy 
Spirit  put  into  actual  operation  when  he  came. 

Can  this  ancient  Program  be  given  practical  ap- 
plication and  put  into  successful  operation  in  the 
twentieth  century? 

Absolutely ! 

Will  it  meet  the  complicated  conditions,  and  func- 
tion in  the  ever-increasing  maze  of  modern  life? 

Nothing  else  but  this  Program  will  do  so ! 

Will  it  cure  the  Church  of  her  increasing  ills, 
revitalize  her  message,  and  bring  back  the  drifting 
masses  to  her  ministry? 

This  is  the  only  Program  that  can  do  it ! 

For  at  the  heart  of  this  Program  lies  the  one 
word  "Go !"  and  world-conditions  can  never  become 
so  complicated,  nor  the  condition  of  the  Church 
become  so  bad,  that  that  command  cannot  be 
obeyed,  when  the  Church  yields  to  the  power  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  exactly  as  it  was  obeyed  in  the 
early  days  of  Church  history. 

When  we  begin  to  go  in  obedience  to  the  divine 
command  and  in  the  fulness  of  the  divine  power, 
then  the  lost  of  the  world  will  begin  to  come.  We 
30 


Practical  Application  31 

can  never  expect  the  world  to  come  to  us  for  the 
message;  we  must  go  to  them  with  the  message. 
And  so  in  the  nature  of  the  case  it  must  be  indi- 
vidual work  for  individuals. 

/.     We  Must  Go  Individually 

If  any  further  Scripture  proof  were  needed  to 
substantiate  this,  there  is  great  abundance. 

Take  the  Great  Commission  itself.  It  is  com- 
monly understood  to  mean,  "Come  ye  out  of  all  the 
community  into  our  church  and  hear  the  Gospel 
preached."  But  it  reads  instead,  ''Go  ye  into  all 
the  world  [your  world,  your  community  as  well  as 
all  the  earth],  and  preach  the  Gospel  [proclaim  the 
Good  Tidings]  to  every  creature."'^ 

There  is  no  command  in  all  the  New  Testament 
for  a  sinner  to  go  to  church  after  the  Gospel,  but 
there  are  multiplied  commands  for  the  Church  to 
take  the  Gospel  to  the  sinner.  Of  course  it  is  cause 
for  great  rejoicing  when  the  lost  do  come  to  church 
and  hear  the  Gospel,  but  the  responsibility  of  every 
Christian  is  not  to  bring  the  lost  to  the  Gospel  but 
to  take  the  Gospel  to  the  lost. 

Even  the  Old  Testament  anticipates  the  Great 
Commission  when  it  exclaims,  "How  beautiful  upon 
the  mountains  are  the  feet  of  him  that  bring eth 
good  tidings,"^  not  "of  them  that  bring  the  people 
to  hear  the  Good  Tidings." 

"Behold  a  sower  went  forth  to  sow"^ — forth  into 
the  field.     The  field  will  never  come  to  us  for  the 


»Mark    16:15.     "Isaiah    52:7.     'Matt.    13:3. 


32  Every- Member  Evangelism 

seed,  so  we  must  take  the  seed  to  the  field.  The 
Christian  is  the  sower,  the  Word  of  salvation  is  the 
seed,  and  the  world  is  the  field.  Every  Christian  is 
to  take  the  Gospel — the  seed,  to  the  lost  in  the 
world — the  field.  Just  as  a  farmer,  if  he  is  ever 
to  get  a  harvest,  must  sow  his  seed  in  the  field  and 
not  stand  on  his  own  doorstep  and  sow  his  own 
door-yard  knee-deep  with  wheat,  so  the  Lord's 
people,  if  they  expect  to  get  a  harvest,  must  take 
the  seed  of  the  Word  out  into  the  world  and  sow  it 
in  the  field,  and  not  do  all  their  sowing  in  the  door- 
yard  of  their  own  church  services. 

"Launch  out  into  the  deep,  and  let  down  your 
nets  for  a  draught."^  The  Lord  has  called  us  to 
be  fishers  of  men,  and  if  we  are  to  take  a  great 
catch  we  must  leave  the  shore  and  the  baited  hook 
and  line  and  get  out  into  deep  water  where  the 
multitudes  of  fish  are.  We  cannot  build  a  finely 
appointed  spiritual  fishing  station  on  a  prominent 
corner,  and  then  expect  the  fish  to  come  hurrying 
in  from  everywhere  to  be  caught,  even  when  we  put 
on  a  special  fishing  campaign.  If  we  are  to  catch 
men  for  Christ  we  must  go  where  they  are. 

"Pray  ye  therefore  the  Lord  of  the  harvest,  that 
he  will  send  forth  labourers  into  his  harvest,"^  that 
is,  harvesters  into  the  field.  The  Lord  never  com- 
manded us  to  pray  for  a  harvest!  But  why  not? 
Because  the  harvest  is  always  white  and  ready 
to  be  gathered.  But  he  did  command  us  to  pray  for 
harvesters.  The  supreme  and  crying  need  is  for 
harvesters  to  go  out  into  the  field  after  the  harvest, 


iLuke   5:4.       ^Matt.   9:38. 


Practical  i\pplication  33 

for  the  harvest  will  never  come  in  out  of  the  field 
to  be  gathered. 

"He  that  goctJi  forth  [into  the  field]  and  weepeth, 
bearing  precious  seed,  shall  doubtless  come  again 
with  rejoicing,  bringing  his  sheaves  with  him."^  He 
goes  after  the  sheaves  and  brings  them  out  of  the 
field;  they  do  not  come  to  him. 

All  this  and  much  more  like  it  forces  upon  us  the 
conviction  that  the  Lord's  *'go"  means  GO! 

"go"  does  not  mean  "send" 

Yet  in  spite  of  all  this  evidence,  multiplied  thou- 
sands of  earnest  Christians  apply  the  "go"  in  the 
Great  Commission  to  Foreign  Missions,  with  the 
possible  inclusion  of  Home  Missions  and  the  work 
of  the  ministry.  It  never  seems  to  dawn  on  them 
that  it  is  an  individual  and  personal  command  to 
themselves.  And  so  because  they  are  not  providen- 
tially directed  to  give  their  whole  lives  to  the  min- 
istry or  to  missions.  Home  or  Foreign,  they  imag- 
ine that  the  Lord's  command  is  not  to  be  obeyed 
except  by  proxy. 

And  so  we  have  the  utterly  unscriptural  phrase, 
"Either  go  or  send  some  one  in  your  place,"  which 
has  helped  multitudes  to  live  in  constant  disobedi- 
ence to  the  Great  Commission  and  still  be  in  good 
conscience  about  it. 

Tlie  Lord  never  commanded  us  to  either  go  or 
send  some  one  else  in  our  place.  He  commanded 
us  to  GO! 

And  every  Christian  has  a  personal  world  into 


iPsa.    126:6. 
4 


34  Every -Member  Evangelism 

which  he  is  to  go.  It  is  our  business  to  do  the 
going.  It  is  the  Lord's  prerogative  to  do  the  send- 
ing. "Whom  shall  /  send,  and  who  will  go  for 
usf^  he  inquires.  No  one  can  send  another  in  his 
place.  He  can  do  nothing  but  go  without  living  in 
disobedience. 

Right  here  is  the  reason  why  genuine  heart  inter- 
est in  missions  is  so  hard  to  arouse.  Proxy  wit- 
nessing in  the  place  of  personal  witnessing  will 
make  practical  interest  in  missions  almost  impos- 
sible. The  one  who  is  not  going  with  the  message 
of  salvation  into  his  own  personal  world  will  have 
but  a  sentimental  interest  in  those  who  are  going 
with  the  message  into  their  own  personal  worlds. 

But  once  let  a  Christian  become  obedient  and  go 
with  the  Gospel  into  his  own  world,  and  he  will  be 
on  fire  with  enthusiasm  to  co-operate,  financially  and 
in  every  other  way,  with  those  who  need  help  to  go 
into  their  personal  worlds.  Imagine  a  church  full 
of  soul-winners;  do  you  think  the  active  mission- 
ary interest  would  be  confined  to  a  small  handful 
of  women,  and  do  you  think  it  would  be  difficult 
to  keep  up  the  interest  even  among  them?  A  non- 
missionary  church  full  of  soul-winners  is  an  im- 
possibility ! 

WE  MUST  TAKE  CHRIST  TO  THE  WORLD 

There  is  another  utterly  unscriptural  phrase  that 
has  grown  up  out  of  this  misconception  of  our 
Lord's   command.     The  great   majority  of   Chris- 

llsaiah  6:8. 


Practical  Application  35 

tians  are  trying  to  "bring  the  world  to  Christ."  But 
that  is  not  what  the  Lord  commanded.  He  told  us 
to  do  the  very  opposite.  He  told  us  to  take  Christ 
to  the  world.  "Ye  shall  be  witnesses  unto  m^/'^ 
he  said,  and  then  he  told  us  to  take  our  testimony 
to  him  to  every  creature  in  all  the  world.  We  can- 
not bring  the  world  to  Christ.  It  will  not  come. 
The  natural  heart  is  enmity  against  God,  and  men 
in  its  power  will  refuse  to  come.  But  we  can  take 
Christ  to  the  world  and  bear  our  testimony  to  him 
in  such  compelling  power  and  persuasiveness  as  to 
overcome  enmity  and  melt  hearts  into  penitence  and 
saving  faith. 

Yes,  this  ancient  Program  can  be  put  into  suc- 
cessful operation  in  the  twentieth  century.  The 
children  of  this  world  are  reaching  the  people  with 
their  propositions,  and  the  children  of  light  can  do 
the  same  thing.  Merchants  have  no  trouble  in  get- 
ting to  the  people.  Milk  dealers  reach  every  cus- 
tomer daily.  Salesmen  of  all  sorts  find  a  way  of 
getting  to  us  with  their  goods,  while  poHticians 
regularly  organize  so  as  to  reach  and  influence  if 
possible  every  last  voter  in  a  given  territory.  Every 
one  is  being  reached  and  everything  is  being 
brought  to  the  modern  man — everything  but  the 
Gospel.  And  the  Church  can  take  the  Gospel  to 
every  man,  if  Christ  did  not  command  an  impos- 
sibility ! 

There  is  therefore  but  one  thing  for  a  Christian 
to  do  who  wants  to  be  obedient  to  his  Lord,  and 
that  is  to  GO. 


»Acts  1:8. 


36  Every- ]\Ieiiiber  Evangelism 

//.     We  Must  Go  Systeinatically 

A  hlt-or-miss  method  is  sure  to  defeat  us.  There 
is  certain  to  be  confusion  without  a  definite  pro- 
gram to  work  to.  Any  business  man  would  regard 
it  as  the  worst  of  follies  to  try  to  run  a  business 
without  method. 

But  we  need  not  make  our  own  program,  for  the 
Lord  has  made  one  for  us.  He  has  not  only  told 
us  to  go,  but  he  has  told  us  how  to  go. 

SYSTEMATIZING   THE    FIELD 

We  are  first  to  be  systematic  in  the  division  of 
our  field. 

When  the  Lord  systematically  divided  the  world- 
field  into  four  districts  and  commanded  the  dis- 
ciples to  bear  the  message  simultaneously  to  Jeru- 
salem, Judaea,  Samaria,  and  *'the  uttermost  part 
of  the  earth,"^  he  gave  us  a  definite  Program  by 
which  every  lesser  field,  down  to  the  smallest,  is  to 
be  systematized  for  the  work  of  witnessing.  We 
are  authorized,  not  to  say  commanded,  to  divide  the 
field  in  which  we  are  located,  and  into  which  we 
are  to  go  with  our  testimony,  into  such  districts  as 
will  enable  us  systematically  to  cover  the  whole 
field  with  our  message. 

This  is  precisely  what  business  men  do.  When 
a  wholesale  business  is  organized,  they  first  deter- 
mine on  a  location  most  favorably  situated  with 
reference  to  the  territory  they  propose  to   cover. 

^Acts   1:8. 


Practical  Application  37 

They  next  build  a  distributing  center,  having  in 
mind  practical  usefulness  in  their  business  rather 
than  ornamental  beauty.  Then  they  employ  sales- 
men— ^personal  workers — and  assign  them  to  spe- 
cific sections  of  that  territory.  And  then  they  send 
them  out  in  systematic  fashion  to  dispose  of  their 
goods  in  those  various  sections,  giving  them  every 
possible  assistance  in  their  work. 

Business  men  are  keen  enough  to  see  that  this  is 
the  only  method  by  which  any  given  territory  can 
be  covered.  The  Lord's  people  ought  also  to  see 
that  this  is  the  only  program  by  which  the  message 
can  be  carried  to  all  the  lost  in  their  field. 

SYSTEMATIZING  THE  LABOR 

We  are  also  to  be  systematic  in  the  division  of 
our  labor.  Just  what  this  division  should  be  has 
already  been  made  perfectly  clear  to  us  in  what  the 
Holy  Spirit  did  on  the  Day  of  Pentecost.  He 
directed  and  empowered  all  the  disciples  in  the 
work  of  private  and  informal  witnessing,  and  then 
he  selected  and  empowered  one  of  the  number  to 
preach  a  sermon  that  became  the  climax  of  the 
previous  witnessing. 

Public  preaching,  therefore,  at  least  that  which  is 
directed  toward  the  salvation  of  the  lost,  is  evi- 
dently intended  by  the  Holy  Spirit  to  be  the  climax 
and  culmination  of  the  private  witnessing  that  is  to 
accompany  it.  Not  that  no  climax  is  possible  except 
in  connection  with  public  preaching.  Far  from  it. 
But  that  public  preaching,  especially  that  which  is 


38  Every -Member  Evangelism 

to  the  lost,  is  not  likely  to  bring  a  climax  of  de- 
cision unless  it  is  accompanied  by  private  witness- 
ing, prayer,  and  personal  work.  Many  a  decision 
for  Christ  is  brought  about  by  private  testimony, 
but  a  sermon  is  not  likely  to  bring  decision  unless 
it  is  accompanied  by  the  private  work  of  individual 
Christians. 

This  is  where  many  a  pastor  fails.  Christian 
^  people  will  go  out  of  a  service  saying  they  cannot 
possibly  understand  how  it  is  that  the  lost  do  not 
yield  under  such  preaching  as  their  pastor  does. 
But  the  reason  is  very  simple.  A  sermon  to  the 
lost  is  to  be  the  climax  of  something  that  has  pre- 
ceded, and  if  that  something  has  not  preceded  there 
is  not  likely  to  be  any  climax,  no  matter  how  earn- 
est the  appeal  of  the  preacher.  The  pastor  has 
failed  simply  because  the  people  have  failed  be- 
hind  him.  If  we  do  not  systematize  our  witnessing 
and  carry  out  the  Program  the  Holy  Spirit  has  laid 
down  for  us  we  must  expect  defeat  and  failure  in 
our  work. 

This  Program  is  very  simple,  perfectly  definite, 
thoroughly  practical,  and  easily  operated,  and  when 
it  is  actually  followed,  it  always  gets  results.  It  is 
just  as  easily  followed  in  the  twentieth  century  as 
is  was  in  the  first,  and  the  Church  would  be  just  as 
victorious  to-day  as  the  early  Church  was  if  she 
would  follow  this  divine  Program. 

A  remarkable  illustration  as  well  as  proof  of  this 
occurred  more  than  a  generation  ago,  in  Valparaiso, 
Indiana,  when  it  was  a  small  city  of  about  4,000, 


Practical  Application  39 

including  the  country  population  adjacent.^  There 
were  in  that  population  less  than  seven  hundred 
church-members,  and  at  least  1,500  old  enough  to 
be  Christians  who  never  went  inside  a  church  door. 

The  Rev.  M.  T.  Lamb,  the  Baptist  pastor,  with 
his  little  church  of  a  hundred  members,  began  meet- 
ings, meantime  making  desperate  efforts  to  get  some 
one  to  come  and  do  the  preaching,  but  failing  every- 
where. 

The  pastor  did  the  preaching,  therefore,  and  the 
meetings  continued  three  weeks  without  the  slight- 
est interest  among  the  unsaved.  Of  the  1,500  or 
more  of  them  in  the  city,  not  one  was  coming. 

Finally  they  were  able  to  secure  a  young  stone- 
mason from  Chicago,  whose  uncouth  appearance 
and  foreign  accent  were  much  against  him,  but 
who  was  a  consecrated  personal  worker. 

Taking  one  of  the  deacons  with  him,  he  started 
out  calling  at  every  house,  insisting  on  seeing  every 
one,  servants  and  all,  and  in  each  home  gave  a 
tender,  earnest  exhortation,  had  prayer  where  de- 
sirable, and  left  with  an  invitation  to  the  meetings. 

Within  three  or  four  days  others  began  doing  the 
same  work,  and  before  the  meetings  closed  a  large 
number,  including  many  of  the  converts,  were  doing 
this  house-to-house  work. 

The  results  were  immediate.  On  the  first  night 
after  the  house-to-house  personal  work  began,  there 
were  several  new  faces  in  the  Baptist  meetings, 
within  a  week  the  house  was   full  and  nearly   a 


1  Story   condensed    from    "Won   by    One,"    M.    T.    Lamb,    pub.   by 
F.  M.  Barton,  Cleveland,  O. 


40  Every -Member  Evangelism 

dozen  had  requested  prayer,  and  within  a  short 
time  the  Methodists,  who  were  also  in  meetings, 
had  a  house  full,  and  the  Presbyterians  were  com- 
pelled to  start  meetings,  and  they  soon  had  a  house 
full. 

Before  the  meetings  closed,  every  unsaved  soul 
in  Valparaiso  had  had  the  Gospel  most  earnestly 
presented  to  him  at  least  two  or  three  times,  result- 
ing in  hundreds  of  them  receiving  Christ. 

Now  note  just  what  they  had  done.  They  had 
systematized  both  the  field  and  the  labor,  and  had 
followed  the  divine  Program  according  to  instruc- 
tions. They  had  turned  the  field  into  one  big  dis- 
trict and  had  gone  systematically  to  every  house  in 
the  city  and  carried  the  Gospel  to  the  lost.  They 
had  witnessed  in  a  private,  informal  way  in  every 
home,  and  the  Gospel  had  been  preached  in  a  public, 
formal  way  every  night  in  three  churches.  And 
that  program  had  worked !  The  Lord's  Programs 
always  work !  When  he  makes  a  Program,  he 
makes  the  kind  that  will  work! 

But  the  Church  is  not  following  this  Program 
to-day.     There  is  a  reason.     We  will  seek  to  find  it. 


CHAPTER  III 
SATANIC  OPPOSITION 

THE  divine  Program  worked  too  well  to  suit 
Satan.  It  worked  so  well  at  the  beginning  of 
the  Age  that  it  took  him  well  nigh  two  hundred 
years  to  work  any  hindrance  to  it.  It  worked  so 
well  that  if  he  had  not  fought  it  with  a  substitute 
program,  he  could  have  retained  at  most  but  a 
small  following  among  earth's  millions.  So  delay 
it  he  must,  and  delay  it  he  finally  did.  We  shall 
seek  to  find  out  how. 

/.     Hozv  Satan  Hindered  the  Divine  Program 

The  one  thing,  aside  from  the  divine  power,  that 
made  the  program  such  a  sweeping  success  was 
that  every  disciple  was  a  zvitness;  they  were  all 
propagandists.  It  was  right  here  that  Satan  struck 
his  blow. 

The  first  thing  he  did  was  so  to  over-emphasize 
the  distinctions  in  the  divinely  appointed  division 
of  service  as  finally  to  get  an  entirely  equal  wit- 
nessing brotherhood  divided  into  two  companies, 
with  the  great  majority  in  one,  and  the  small  mi- 
nority in  the  other.  The  small  company  came  to  be 
called  "clergy,'^  and  the  large  company  "laity." 
And  then  he  worked  the  witnessing  out  of  the 
hands  of  the  *'laity,"  until  it  was  finally  regarded 
41 


42  Every -Member  Evangelism 

as  the  exclusive  right  of  the  "clergy."     Then  came 
the  Devil's  Millennium  which  history  calls  the  Dark 

Ages ! 

THE   BLOW  THAT   STUNNED  THE   CHURCH 

This  was  the  most  terrific  blow  Satan  ever  dealt 
the  Church,  and  one  from  which  she  has  never 
recovered.  It  stunned  the  Church  and  all  but  killed 
her,  and  although  the  Reformation  gave  some 
promise  of  returning  health  and  vigor,  yet  the 
recovery  of  her  normal  functions  was  only  partial, 
(and  she  is  to-day  slowly  but  surely  losing  out  to 
the  powers  of  darkness. 

The  fact  is  that  there  are  multitudes  in  the 
Church  to-day  who  are  still  living  in  the  Dark 
Ages,  at  least  so  far  as  obedience  to  the  Great 
Commission  is  concerned.  Some  of  the  most  ear- 
nest of  those  who  may  read  these  pages  will  reach 
this  point  with  a  feeling  of  amazement  and  per- 
plexity. They  have  always  supposed  that  carry- 
ing the  Gospel  to  the  unsaved  is  precisely  what  the 
pastor  is  for.  Of  course  it  is  cause  for  rejoicing 
if  the  church  has  a  few  officials  and  perhaps  some 
others  who  are  *'gifted  in  that  direction"  and  "in- 
terested in  that  kind  of  work,"  who  will  supple- 
ment the  pastor's  personal  work,  but  that  every 
Christian  is  commanded  to  take  the  Gospel  to  all 
the  unsaved  who  will  not  come  to  church  after  it 
never  seems  to  have  entered  their  minds.  And 
when  such  a  thing  is  suggested  they  are  ready  to 
ask,   Why  did  the  pastor  enter  the  ministry  if  it 


Satanic  Opposition  43 

was  not  to  give  his  life  to  soul- winning?  Why  all 
those  years  of  preparation  if  it  was  not  to  become 
expert  in  preaching  and  personal  work  for  the 
reaching  of  the  lost?  Why  does  the  church  "em- 
ploy" him  and  "pay  him  a  salary/'  if  he  is  not  to 
give  his  whole  life  to  proclaiming  the  Gospel,  in 
public  and  from  house  to  house,  and  winning  souls 
to  Christ  and  bringing  them  into  the  Church,  while 
the  members  support  and  encourage  him  in  his 
work? 

A   PROGRAM    THAT   INSURES   FAILURE 

If  these  questions  are  in  your  mind,  stop  and 
think  a  minute.  No  wholesale  house  could  ever  be 
run  on  such  a  program,  and  no  more  can  the 
Church  of  the  living  God!  Suppose  it  should  be 
considered  the  duty  of  the  sales  manager,  in  har- 
mony with  that  program,  to  go  out  and  do  all  the 
selling,  with  a  little  help,  perhaps,  from  a  few 
officers  of  the  company  or  members  of  the  firm, 
while  the  salesmen  support  him  by  their  encourage- 
ment and  their  faithful  attendance  on  his  weekly 
lectures  on  the  quality  and  value  of  their  goods. 
And  suppose  the  salesmen  simply  go  out  into  the 
territory  through  the  week  to  try  to  persuade  a  few 
prospective  customers  to  come  to  those  weekly  lec- 
tures in  the  hope  that  they  will  decide  to  buy,  while 
they  themselves  make  little  or  no  attempt  to  sell 
any  goods,  but  simply  seek  to  interest  possible  cus- 
tomers in  the  fine  lectures  of  the  sales  manager. 
How   long   do   you   think   that   house   would   last? 


44  Every -Member  Evangelism 

Just  about  long  enough  to  exhaust  the  capital! 
And  the  fact  that  the  Church  has  not  gone  to  the 
wall  for  good  on  such  a  program  is  certain  proof 
that  it  is  a  divine  institution!  Indeed,  it  was  pre- 
cisely that  program  that  all  but  killed  the  Church 
during  the  Dark  Ages. 

THE  PASTOR   NOT  A   HIRED   MAN 

Think  again  a  minute.  The  pastor  is  not  "em- 
ployed" by  a  church,  for  he  is  not  the  church's 
*'hired  man."  He  is  '"employed"  by  God,  the 
Owner  of  the  business,  and  taken  care  of  out  of 
his  own  treasury,  the  funds  in  which  are  adminis- 
tered by  the  church.  No  pastor  is  ever  "paid  a 
salary"  out  of  the  pockets  of  the  people  while  he 
does  their  witnessing  and  soul-winning  work  for 
them;  he  is  given  a  "support"  out  of  the  treasury 
of  the  Lord,  while  he  gives  his  whole  time  ^o  the 
perfecting  of  the  members  in  the  art  of  witnessing 
and  soul-winning. 

At  a  Monday  morning  ministers'  meeting,  the 
writer  heard  a  prominent  pastor  tell  the  incident 
that  he  once  called  on  a  church  officer  to  lead  in 
prayer  at  a  prayer-meeting,  and  the  man  retorted, 
*Tray  yourself!  What  do  we  hire  you  for?"  And 
you  v/ho  read  these  lines  may  be  saying  to  your 
pastor,  in  attitude  if  not  in  words,  "Win  the  lost 
to  Christ  yourself !     W^hat  do  we  hire  you  for  ?" 

When  men  are  struggling  and  going  down  in  the 
weaves  of  sin,  the  pastor  is  not  the  whole  life-sav- 
ing crew !     There  was  a  terrible  wreck  off  the  coast 


Satanic  Opposition  45 

of  Italy.  The  captain  of  the  life-saving  crew,  in- 
stead of  manning  the  life-boat,  stood  on  shore  and 
shouted  instructions  through  a  trumpet  to  the 
drowning  sailors.  The  report  that  went  to  the  gov- 
ernment said,  "We  rendered  what  assistance  we 
could  through  the  speaking  trumpet,  but  the  next 
morning  there  were  twenty  bodies  washed  ashore." 
And  the  church  that  uses  its  pastor  as  its 
speaking  trumpet,  and  fails  to  man  the  life-boats 
with  the  entire  crew  and  push  out  to  save  the  lost 
who  are  going  down,  will  be  responsible  for  a  great 
company  who  will  one  day  be  thrown  up  on  the 
shores  of  a  Christless  eternity  who  might  have 
been  saved  if  the  Lord's  people  had  gone  after 
them. 

SATAN    BEHIND   OUR    FAILURE 

Satan  is  behind  this  misconception  of  the  Great 
Commission.  Multitudes  of  most  earnest  Chris- 
tians never  dream  that  they  have  been  put  into  the 
list  of  disobedient  disciples  by  accepting  one  of 
Satan's  sophistries,  but  it  is  true.  He  has  always 
used  every  possible  means  to  close  the  mouths  of 
Christian  witnesses,  for  he  is  overcome  *'by  the 
blood  of  the  Lamb,  and  by  the  word  of  their  testi- 
miony/'^  And  so  he  is  only  too  glad  to  see  us  busy 
in  all  sorts  of  "church  work,"  so  long  as  he  can  get 
us  to  stop  short  of  soul-winning  work.  He  will  be 
willing  to  see  us  take  an  active  interest  even  in 
Home  and  Foreign  Missions,  and  even  occupy  offi- 


iRev.   12:11. 


46  Every -Member  Evangelism 

cial  positions  in  that  work,  provided  he  can  keep 
us  too  busy  to  do  any  soul-winning  work  ourselves. 

A  Missionary  Secretary  wrote  a  confession  to  the 
Missionary  Review  of  the  World.  She  said :  "I 
was  helping  to  get  up  a  big  convention,  and  was 
full  of  enthusiasm  over  making  the  session  a  suc- 
cess. On  the  opening  day  my  aged  father,  who 
came  as  a  delegate  to  the  convention,  sat  with  me 
at  luncheon  at  the  hotel.  He  Hstened  sympathet- 
ically to  my  glowing  accounts  of  the  great  features 
that  were  to  be.  When  I  paused  for  breath,  he 
leaned  towards  me  and  said,  while  his  eye  followed 
the  stately  movements  of  the  head  waiter,  'Daugh- 
ter, I  think  that  big  head  waiter  over  there  is  going 
to  accept  Jesus  Christ.  I've  been  talking  to  him 
about  his  soul.'  I  almost  gasped.  I  had  been  too 
busy  planning  for  a  great  missionary  convention. 
I  had  no  time  to  think  of  the  soul  of  the  head 
waiter. 

"When  we  went  out  to  my  apartment,  a  Negro 
man  was  washing  the  apartment  windows.  Jim 
was  honest  and  trustworthy,  and  had  been  a  most 
satisfactory  helper  in  my  home.  Only  a  few  mo- 
ments passed  before  I  heard  my  father  talking 
earnestly  with  Jim  about  his  personal  salvation,  and 
a  swift  accusation  went  to  my  heart  as  I  realized 
that  I  had  known  Jim  for  years  and  had  never  said 
a  word  to  him  of  salvation. 

"A  carpenter  came  in  to  repair  a  door.  I  awaited 
his  going  with  impatience  to  sign  his  work  ticket, 
for  my  ardent  soul  longed  to  be  back  at  my  mis- 


Satanic  Opposition  47 

sionary  task.  Even  as  I  waited  I  heard  my  father 
talking  with  the  man  about  the  door  he  had  just 
fixed,  and  then  simply  and  naturally  leading  the 
conversation  to  the  only  door  into  the  Kingdom  of 
God. 

"A  Jew  lives  across  the  street.  I  had  thought 
that  possibly  I  would  call  on  the  folks  who  lived 
in  the  neighborhood — some  time — but  I  had  my 
hands  so  full  of  my  missionary  work  the  calls  had 
never  been  made,  but,  as  they  met  on  the  street, 
my  father  talked  with  my  neighbor  of  the  only 
Saviour   of   the   world. 

"A  friend  took  us  out  to  ride.  I  waited  for  my 
father  to  get  into  the  car,  but  in  a  moment  he  was 
up  beside  the  chauffeur,  and  in  a  few  minutes  I 
heard  him  talking  earnestly  with  the  man  about  the 
way  of  salvation.  When  we  reached  home  he  said, 
*You  know  I  was  afraid  I  might  never  have  another 
chance  to  speak  to  the  man.' 

"The  wife  of  a  prominent  railway  man  took  him 
out  to  ride  in  her  elegant  limousine.  'I  am  glad 
she  asked  me  to  go,'  he  said,  *for  it  gave  me  an 
opportunity  of  talking  with  her  about  her  salvation. 
I  think  no  one  had  ever  talked  with  her  before.' 

"Yet  these  opportunities  had  come  to  me  also  and 
had  passed  by  as  ships  in  the  night,  while  I  strained 
my  eyes  to  catch  sight  of  a  larger  sail  on  a  more 
distant  horizon.  I  could  but  question  my  own  heart 
whether  my  passion  was  for  souls  or  success  in 
getting  up  conventions." 

Here  is  the  vital  difiference  between  sentimental 


48  Every- Member  Evangelism 

and  practical  interest  in  missions.  No  matter  how 
much  enthusiasm  we  show  in  talking  and  planning 
missionary  work,  if  we  haven't  enough  interest  in 
the  African,  or  the  Jap,  or  the  Italian  who  does  our 
work  to  make  the  first  attempt  to  lead  him  to  a 
saving  faith  in  Christ,  our  interest  in  missions  is 
nothing  but  sentiment,  and  it  scarcely  touches  the 
fringes  of  Satan's  soul-destroying  work. 

Just  so  long,  therefore,  as  the  conception  prevails 
that  the  pastor  is  to  do  the  active  soul-winning  work 
of  the  church,  and  just  so  long  as  the  most  earnest 
members  of  the  church  stop  short  of  actual  and 
definite  personal  efforts  to  bring  Christ  to  lost  men 
and  women,  just  so  long  will  the  great  enemy  of 
Christ  and  his  Church  prevail.  It  is  high  time  the 
Church  stopped  working  by  Satan's  program ! 

//.     How  Satan  Keeps  the  Divine  Program  HifP- 
dered 

Satan  keeps  the  divine  Program  hindered  by 
keeping  his  own  program  in  operation.  Through 
its  means  he  has  the  Church  by  the  throat,  and  is 
strangling  the  life  out  of  her  by  shutting  off  the 
breath  of  her  universal  testimony.  He  is  doing  this 
in  unnumbered  ways,  for  he  fears  universal  testi- 
mony to  the  saving  grace  of  God  m.ore  than  any 
other  one  thing.  Anything  to  keep  Christians  still, 
is  the  one  main  track  on  which  all  his  opposition 
to  the  Church  is  run. 


Satanic  Opposition  49 

ENTANGLED    IN    WORLDLINESS 

He  entangles  Christians  in  the  plans  and  pleas- 
ures of  the  worldly  and  godless  crowd,  and  thus 
shuts  off  their  personal  testimony  and  kills  the  pub- 
lic testimony  of  the  preacher.  For  the  lost  hear 
the  preacher  say  that  when  we  are  saved  all  the 
old  things  will  pass  away  and  all  things  will  be- 
come new ;  and  then  they  look  at  the  worldly  church- 
member  and  see  all  the  old  things  and  nothing  new 
in  his  life,  and  conclude  that  what  the  preacher  has 
said  is  a  beautiful  theory  that  doesn't  work,  and  go 
right  on  in  their  service  of  Satan. 

THE  "church"''  will  DO  IT 

Then  Satan  fosters  the  impression  that  upon  a 
certain  organic  body  of  people  called  "the  church" 
rests  the  responsibility  of  soul-winning,  and  that 
if  each  member  does  his  share  of  "church  work," 
Christ  will  somehow  be  brought  to  the  lost  by  "the 
church."  But  the  truth  is,  the  ministry  of  taking 
the  Gospel  to  every  creature  was  never  committed 
to  the  Church,  much  less  to  the  "clergy."  It  was 
committed  to  the  individuals  composing  the  Church. 
Witnessing  to  Christ  is  a  personal  not  an  organic 
ministry. 

MISCONCEPTION   OF  THE   MINISTRY 

Another  device  of  Satan  is  to  give  the  pastors 
themselves  the  conception  that  the  pastorate  is  a 
religious  lectureship  rather  than  a  soul-winning  gen- 

5 


50  Every- Member  Evangelism 

eralship.  And  so  it  comes  to  pass  that  instead  of 
doing  the  work  of  an  overseer  or  superintendent, 
and  actually  leading  and  instructing  the  members  in 
the  work  of  soul-winning,  they  try  to  get  the  re- 
sults they  are  after  by  their  pulpit  work. 

This  is  why  many  pastors  fail  to  experience  any- 
thing like  adequate  results  in  their  work.  They  fail 
because  the  church  is  failing  behind  them ;  and  the 
church  is  failing  because  the  pastor,  in  turn,  has 
not  led  them  out  in  that  work  which  alone  will  make 
his  work  succeed.  And  perhaps  behind  the  pastor 
is  a  Theological  Seminary  that  has  failed  to  in- 
struct him  in  his  main  responsibility  to  the  flock 
of  God.  And  Satan's  skilful  manipulation  is  behind 
all  these  failures.  For  wherever  you  see  a  church 
diverted  from  the  one  work  of  soul-winning,  you 
may  be  sure  Satan  has  had  his  hand  in  things  some- 
where. 

HOW  "church  work'^  hinders 

Again,  Satan  works  into  church  life  and  activity 
a  multitude  of  things  that  need  badly  enough  to 
be  done,  but  which  it  is  not  the  business  of  the 
Church  to  do,  and  thus  steals  away  both  time  and 
service  from  the  most  earnest  and  consecrated  of 
the  members,  who  are  the  very  ones  who  would  be 
the  first  to  take  the  Gospel  to  the  lost  if  they  were 
not  entangled  in  these  multiplied  forms  of  "church 
work."  So  many  societies  and  organizations,  with 
objects  that  are  worthy,  but  that  do  not  belong  in 
the  work  of  the  Church  as  such,  are  besieging  the 


Satanic  Opposition  51 

Church  for  recognition  and  co-operation  to-day  that 
the  average  church  would  have  no  time  left  for  her 
ov^n  work  if  any  attention  were  to  be  given  to  these 
multiplied  calls. 

WITNESSING   THAT   FAILS 

Another  successful  method  of  Satan's  is  to  give 
those  earnest  Christians  who  are  anxious  to  wit- 
ness something  else  to  witness  to  beside  Christ. 
Many  churches  have  a  little  company  of  faithful 
people  who  are  constantly  witnessing  to  the  splendid 
sermons  or  the  fine  personality  of  their  pastor,  the 
crowds  that  attend  the  services,  the  fine  singing, 
the  splendid  sociability,  and  a  lot  of  other  delight- 
ful things  connected  with  their  church,  but  they 
are  not  going  everywhere  witnessing  to  Christ. 
Some  of  them  are  very  intelligent  about  the  history 
and  doctrines  of  their  denomination,  and  can  enter- 
tain you  by  the  hour  with  most  informing  discourse 
upon  them,  but  when  it  comes  to  such  testimony 
to  Christ  and  his  redeeming  power  as  will  bring 
a  sinning  soul  to  a  saving  knowledge  of  him,  they 
are  doing  none  of  that  kind  of  witnessing.  And 
so  their  churches  are  dragging  through  weary 
months  with  scarcely  a  soul  brought  to  receive 
Christ,  while  a  great  harvest  is  going  to  eternal 
ruin  all  around  them  for  the  want  of  harvesters. 
The  only  kind  of  witnessing  for  which  the  Holy 
Spirit  will  ever  empower  a  Christian  is  witnessing 
to  Christ.  Witnessing  of  every  other  kind  is  power- 
less to  save.    Satan  knows  this,  and  this  is  why  he 


52  Every -Member  Evangelism 

influences  earnest  Christians  who  want  to  witness 
into  testimony  to  everything  and  everybody  except 
Christ  and  his  saving  grace,  and  closes  their  mouths 
about  him. 

THE   "go-to-church"    METHOD 

Among  the  most  successful  weapons  which  Satan 
uses  against  the  Church  is  the  all  but  universal 
notion  that  it  is  the  responsibility  of  the  lost  to  go 
after  the  Gospel.  And  so  almost  the  entire  evangel- 
istic effort  of  Christians  everywhere  exhausts  it- 
self in  trying  to  get  the  lost  to  go  to  church.  Our 
"Go-to-church''  campaigns  are  based  upon  this  very 
notion,  and  practically  every  evangelistic  campaign 
is  an  attempt  to  induce  the  lost  to  "go-to-church" 
to  hear  the  great  singing  and  the  imported  preacher, 
in  the  hope  that  they  may  possibly  accept  Christ 
under  the  impulse  of  the  service. 

The  result  is  inevitable.  In  the  average  revival 
campaign  held  in  a  single  church,  the  fifty  or  hun- 
dred unsaved  Sunday-school  scholars,  and  the 
twenty-five  or  fifty  unsaved  relatives  and  friends 
of  the  members  are  reached,  with  possibly  a  few 
strangers,  while  the  great  throngs  of  unsaved  are 
left  utterly  untouched  to  drift  into  a  Christless 
eternity,  where  they  will  forever  wail  out  the  awful 
accusation,  "No  man  cared  enough  for  my  soul  to 
bring  me  the  Good  News  of  salvation."  And  in 
even  the  greatest  and  most  successful  tabernacle 
campaigns,  only  a  pitifully  small  fraction  of  the  un- 
saved  are   ever   reached,    while   the   churches    slip 


Satanic  Opposition  53 

back  into  their  criminal  neglect  of  the  lost  almost 
as  soon  as  the  meetings  close,  hoping  that  a  few  un- 
saved will  come  after  the  Gospel  and  accept  it  while 
they  wait  for  the  next  go-to-church  evangelistic 
campaign  to  come. 

A  Socialist  said  at  a  meeting  of  his  followers, 
*'The  present  policy  of  the  Church  is  this:  'You 
may  come  here  and  get  God's  message  and  go  to 
heaven,  or  you  may  stay  away  and  go  to  hell !' " 
Is  this  the  truth,  or  is  it  a  libel? 

In  an  Ohio  city  of  135,000,  in  which  there  were 
more  than  50,000  old  enough  to  be  saved  who  v/ere 
without  Christ,  a  six  weeks'  tabernacle  meeting,  led 
by  one  of  the  most  capable  and  widely  sought  pas- 
tor-evangelists in  the  land  and  co-operated  in  most 
heartily  by  more  than  fifty  churches,  resulted  in 
reaching  about  1,200.  This  was  cause  for  great  re- 
joicing, but  what  did  the  churches  do  for  the  49,000 
others  who  v/ere  still  out  of  Christ?  Just  what 
churches  everywhere  do — yiothing!  They  had  spared 
neither  labor  nor  expense  to  give  the  lost  of  their 
city  the  chance  of  their  lives  to  come  after  the 
Gospel  and  be  saved.  What  more  could  they  do? 
They  had  done  their  utmost  to  get  the  sheaves  to 
come  in  out  of  the  field  and  be  harvested ;  to  get  the 
fish  to  come  to  shore  and  be  caught ;  to  get  the 
dead  to  come  after  Hfe;  and  if  49,000  of  them  still 
insisted  on  staying  away,  weren't  the  churches  help- 
less to  do  any  more  ?  What  more  should  they  have 
done? 

If  this  is  the  attitude     of  the  great  majority  of 


54  Every -Member  Evangelism 

our  churches  to-day — and  it  is,  then  the  Socialist 
was  right.  The  present  policy  of  depending  on  the 
pastor  for  almost  the  entire  soul-winning  work  of 
the  church  must  inevitably  make  just  the  impres- 
sion on*  people  that  was  expressed  by  the  Socialist. 
The  pastor  can  never  do  this  work.  There  aren't 
enough  of  him.  It  is  an  absolute  physical  impos- 
sibihty.  The  Rev.  R.  H.  Claney  says:  "If  Christ 
had  started  on  the  day  of  his  baptism  to  preach  in 
the  villages  of  India  and  had  continued  up  to  the 
present,  visiting  one  village  each  day,  healing  the 
sick  and  proclaiming  the  Gospel,  he  would  still  have 
left  unvisited  30,000  villages  in  India."  This  illus- 
trates in  some  measure  the  inability  of  the  pastor 
to  get  the  Gospel  to  all  the  lost,  especially  in  a 
crowded  city  field,  before  they  are  forever  beyond 
his  reach. 

The  pastor  cannot  average  more  than  ten  hours 
a  week  in  house-to-house  work.  Now  suppose  a 
hundred  members  of  his  church  should  average  one 
hour  a  week  in  this  work.  This  would  mean  that 
they  were  together  giving  as  much  time  to  that  work 
in  one  week  as  he  could  give  in  ten,  to  say  nothing 
of  the  added  emphasis  that  would  be  given  to  a 
testimony  coming  from  *1aymen." 

This  policy  of  the  Church  is  one  reason  why  the 
pastor  fails.  And  it  is  why  the  evangelist  fails. 
And  it  is  why  the  Church  herself  is  going  increas- 
ingly to  fail  until  she  gets  back  to  first  century 
obedience  to  the  Great  Commission. 

Many  have  been  praying  for  years  for  a  great. 


Satanic  Opposition  55 

world-wide  revival.  When  the  Church  gets  back  to 
literal  obedience  to  the  Great  Commission  the 
answer  will  come !  The  harvest  is  dead-ripe  and 
ready  to  be  harvested,  while  the  harvesters  are  sit- 
ting in  the  storehouse  and  wondering  why  it  doesn't 
come  in !  The  harvest  can  be  gathered  as  soon  as 
the  harvesters  go  into  the  field  after  it ! 

HOW  SATAN  USES  CHRISt's   PROGRAM 

Satan  knows  the  value  of  the  Lord's  Program 
for  his  people,  and  so  while  he  is  doing  his  infernal 
best  to  keep  us  from  working  to  it,  he  is  most  dili- 
gently using  it  in  his  own  destructive  work. 

Every  adherent  of  a  false  faith  is  a  propagandist, 
especially  in  those  cults  that  are  spreading  most 
rapidly. 

When  D.  L.  Moody  was  within  forty  miles  of 
Salt  Lake  City  on  his  way  there  to  hold  meetings, 
the  engineer  came  back  into  the  train  and  gave  him 
an  invitation  to  ride  in  the  engine.  The  invitation 
was  accepted,  and  that  engineer  tried  through  the 
entire  forty-mile  ride  to  convert  D.  L.  Moody  to 
Mormonism ! 

The  one  thing  that  accounts  for  the  spread  of 
Christian  Science  in  spite  of  all  the  opposition  to 
it  is  that  every  Eddyite  is  a  personal  worker  and 
a  propagandist. 

And  look  at  Mohammedanism.  Dan  Crawford 
says  that  the  one  reason  it  has  captured  one-eighth 
of  the  world's  population  is  because  of  its  "all-at- 
it"   program,      "From    Morocco   to    Zanzibar,"    he 


56  Every -Member  Evangelism 

says,  "from  Sierra  Leone  to  Siberia  and  China, 
from  Bosnia  to  New  Guinea  has  witnessed  the  suc- 
cess of  the  all-at-it  method." 

THE  AWFUL  RESULTS 

Perhaps  the  most  tragic  and  heart-breaking  feat- 
ure of  the  failure  of  Christians  to  take  the  Gospel 
to  the  lost  is  the  occasional  inside  glimpse  of  the 
awful  results. 

A  pastor  was  passing  a  big  department  store,  and 
followed  a  sudden  impulse  to  go  in  and  talk  to  the 
proprietor  on  the  subject  of  his  salvation.  Finding 
him,  he  said :  **Mr.  T.,  I've  talked  beds  and  carpets 
and  bookcases  with  you,  but  I've  never  talked  my 
business  with  you.  Would  you  give  me  a  few  min- 
utes to  do  so?"  Being  led  to  the  private  office,  the 
minister  took  out  his  New  Testament  and  showed 
him  passage  after  passage  which  brought  before  that 
business  man  his  duty  to  accept  Jesus  Christ.  Finally 
the  tears  began  to  roll  down  his  cheeks,  and  he 
said  to  the  pastor,  "I'm  seventy  years  of  age.  I 
was  born  in  this  city,  and  more  than  a  hundred 
ministers,  and  more  than  five  hundred  church  offi- 
cers, have  known  me  as  you  have,  to  do  business 
with,  but  in  all  those  years  you  are  the  only  man 
who  ever  spoke  to  me  about  my  soul." 

A  trustee  in  an  important  church  in  Pennsylvania 
told  the  writer  that  he  attended  all  the  services  of 
that  church  for  twenty  years,  the  people  knowing 
all  the  time  that  he  was  not  a  Christian,  and  no  one 
in  all  that  time,  not  even  the  pastor,  ever  said  one 


Satanic  Opposition  57 

word  to  him  about  receiving  Christ.  Finally  becom- 
ing alarmed  for  fear  no  one  would  ever  approach 
him  on  the  subject,  he  hunted  up  some  one  him- 
self who  could  tell  him  how  to  accept  Christ. 

When  Wu  Ting  Fang  was  Chinese  Ambassador 
to  this  country,  he  spoke  in  many  places  through- 
out the  land,  and  always  praised  Confucianism  as 
being  far  above  Christianity.  After  closing  his  am- 
bassadorship, he  spent  his  last  Sunday  in  this  coun- 
try in  New  York  City.  The  Rev.  Huie  Kin,  a  Chris- 
tian Chinese  pastor  in  the  city,  telephoned  Mr.  Wu 
at  his  hotel  and  asked  him  to  attend  church  service. 
Mr.  Wu  said  to  the  pastor:  "When  I  was  a  boy 
in  China  I  was  acquainted  with  some  Christian 
people  and  thought  highly  of  Christianity.  I  had 
never  identified  myself  with  it,  but  when  I  was  ap- 
pointed to  America,  I  decided  that  I  wanted  to  throw 
in  my  lot  with  Christian  people  there,  and  made 
up  my  mind  that  I  would  accept  the  first  invitation 
which  was  given  me  to  attend  a  Christian  service." 
Then  after  a  moment's  pause,  he  said:  "This  is 
the  first  invitation  I  have  had!" 

It  has  been  stated  that  Leon  Trotzky  was  within 
easy  reach  of,  if  not  in  frequent  contact  with,  many 
Christians  in  New  York  in  his  youth  and  young 
manhood,  but  that  no  one  ever  attempted  to  win 
him  for  Christ.    And  look  at  the  result! 

A  certain  farmer  walked  to  church  every  Sun- 
day past  a  neglected  home.  In  that  home  was  a 
boy  whom  he  never  even  asked  to  attend  Sunday- 


58  Every-Member  Evangelism 

school.     That   boy  was  Joe   Smith,   the  leader   of 
the  Mormon  church. 

*lf  thou  dost  not  speak  to  warn  the  wicked  from 
his  way,  that  wicked  man  shall  die  in  his  iniquity; 
but  his  blood  shall  I  require  at  thine  hand."'^ 


»Ezek.   33:8. 


Part  II 
THE  DIVINE  PURPOSE 


INTRODUCTORY 

WHEN  the  Lord  gave  his  people  the  Program 
of  work  we  have  been  considering  he  thereby 
eliminated  all  other  programs  whatsoever. 

In  choosing  just  this  method  of  work  rather  than 
some  other  he  must  have  had  some  definite  purpose 
in  view. 

What  his  entire  purpose  was  we  shall  never  know 
here,  but  some  of  the  reasons  for  giving  us  that 
method  of  work  lie  right  on  the  surface,  and  by  as 
much  as  we  are  able  to  recognize  them,  therefore,  by 
that  much  shall  we  be  in  fellowship  with  his  purpose. 

There  are  at  least  two  things  that  lie  in  his  pur- 
pose about  which  there  can  be  no  question.  One  is 
that  this  Program  is  the  only  method  of  work  that 
will  save  the  Church.  The  other  is  that  it  is  the  only 
method  that  will  reach  the  lost.  For  these  reasons 
at  least,  then,  he  gave  us  the  Program  he  did. 

We  will  therefore  consider  in  this  portion  of  our 
study  of  the  Great  Commission  these  two  elements 
that  lie  in  the  divine  Purpose. 


5^ 


CHAPTER  I 
THIS  PROGRAM  WILL  SAVE  THE  CHURCH 

A  CHRISTIAN  is  one  who  has  become  spirit- 
ually alive  from  the  dead.  The  presence  of 
spiritual  life  within  him  is  the  one  fundamental 
thing  that  distinguishes  him  from  the  unregenerate 
world  about  him. 

WHAT  SPIRITUAL  LIFE  IS 

This  spiritual  life  is  not  native  to  us,  nor  can  it 
be  developed  out  of  anything  we  have  or  are  by 
nature.  It  must  be  given  to  us.  So  God  has  given 
us  eternal  life,  "and  this  life  is  in  His  Son,"  through 
whose  possession  of  us  when  we  believed  on  him 
we  were  born  from  above ;  *'not  of  blood,  nor  of  the 
will  of  the  flesh,  nor  of  the  will  of  man,  but  of 
God  ;"^  by  which  we  have  become  a  "new  creation"^ 
in  Christ,  being  thereby  made  "partakers  of  the 
divine  nature."^ 

The  life  of  a  Christian,  therefore,  is  the  life  of 
Christ  within  us  through  the  Holy  Spirit.  It  is 
not  a  life  similar  to  his,  it  is  his  life.  This  is  shown 
by  the  fact  that  what  we  receive  in  the  new  birth 
is  not  only  "everlasting  life,"  but  also  "eternal  life," 
which  is  far  more  than  "everlasting  life."  For 
while  everlasting  life  has  no  end,  yet  it  may  have 

ijohn   1:13.         ^2  Cor.   5:17   (Gr,).         ^2  Peter   1:4. 

6o 


This  Program  Will  Save  the  Church       61 

a  beginning;  but  eternal  life  has  neither  beginning 
nor  end. 

Now  the  Triune  God  is  the  only  one  in  the  uni- 
verse who  has  eternal  hfe.  The  only  way  he  can 
give  us  eternal  life,  therefore,  is  to  possess  us  with 
his  own  life,  through  Christ,  by  the  Holy  Spirit. 
This  is  one  thing  Paul  meant  when  he  said,  *'To 
me  to  live  is  Christ/'^  This  is  a  mystery  that  is 
too  high  for  us.  We  can  none  of  us  understand  it; 
but  we  can  believe  it. 

LIFE    MUST    EXPRESS    ITSELF 

Now  Hfe,  of  whatever  kind,  must  manifest  itself. 
Wherever  life  is  present  and  in  normal  condition, 
it  must  act. 

Moreover,  all  life  of  every  kind  must  express 
itself  according  to  its  nature,  it  must  act  in  conform- 
ity with  its  own  type.  Physical  life  will  express 
itself  physically,  mental  Hfe,  mentally,  and  spiritual 
Hfe,  spiritually.  And  spiritual  means  far  more  than 
moral.  A  man  may  be  splendidly  moral  without 
any  relation  to  spiritual  things  whatever.  All 
spiritual  activity  has  to  do  with  direct  and  vital  con- 
nection with  God,  his  Word,  his  Son,  his  people, 
his  work  for  a  lost  world. 

Wherever  the  life  of  God  is  present  and  unhin- 
dered, therefore,  it  must  and  will  act  in  perfect  har- 
mony with  his  nature.  If  this  is  not  certain,  noth- 
ing can  be. 

The  conclusion  is  that  if  the  Hfe  of  Christ  is  in 


»Phil.  1:21. 


62  Every- Member  Evangelism 

a  man  it  must  express  itself,  for  it  will  be  in  him 
"a  well  of  water  springing  up" ;  bubbling  over.  So 
long  as  conditions  are  normal  it  cannot  be  kept 
down. 

And  also,  this  upspringing  and  bubbling-over  life 
of  Christ  in  a  man  will  make  him  prefer  to  think, 
say,  and  do  those  things  that  are  perfectly  normal 
to  the  life  of  Christ  himself. 

If  we  can  find  out,  therefore,  what  things  are 
normal  to  the  life  of  Christ,  we  shall  also  have 
learned  what  the  normal  Christian  Hfe  is. 

LIFE  IS   EXPRESSED  IN   LOVE 

"God  is  love."^  Love  lies  at  the  heart  of  God's 
nature,  and  is  the  normal  expression  of  every  out- 
going of  his  being  toward  others.  And  so  love  will 
and  must  be  the  normal  expression  of  the  life  of 
Christ  in  the  believer,  or  in  other  words,  of  the 
Christian  Life. 

Then  if  we  can  find  out  what  his  love  prompts 
him  to  do  in  himself,  we  shall  know  what  his  love 
will  seek  to  do  through  us  when  his  life  possesses 
us.    Think  carefully  for  a  moment. 

Love  is  the  spontaneous  outgoing  of  the  whole 
life  and  being  on  behalf  of  others.  It  is  the  very 
nature  of  love  to  give.  It  is  self-gWmg.  "God  so 
loved  the  world  that  He  gave"^  himself  in  his  Son, 
who  was  "God  manifest  in  the  flesh."' 

This  accounts  not  only  for  the  fact  that  Christ 
came  into  the  world,  but  shows  why  he  came.     He 


11   John  4:8.       ^john  3:16.       »!   Tim.   3:16. 


This  Prog:ram  Will  Save  the  Church       63 


't> 


came  to  give  himself;  and  he  gave  himself  as  a  ran- 
som, that  whosoever  accepted  his  gift  ''should  not 
perish,  but  have  eternal  life."^  "The  Son  of  man 
is  come  to  seek  and  to  save  that  which  was  lost,"'' 
and  in  doing  so  he  gave  up,  and  laid  down,  and  let 
go,  until  there  was  nothing  left  to  let  go  of  but  his 
life,  and  then  he  gave  that  up  that  those  dead  in 
trespasses  and  sins  might  live  through  him.  This 
is  what  love  prompted  him  to  do. 

Then  he  said  to  his  disciples,  "As  my  Father  hath 
sent  me,  even  so  send  I  you.'"^  And  so  as  he  was 
sent  to  give  up  his  life,  we  are  sent  to  do  the  same 
thing,  though  not  in  the  same  way.  He  gave  his  life 
up  in  death ;  we  are  to  give  ours  up  in  service.  His 
'was  a  dying  sacrifice;  ours  is  to  be  "a  living  sacri- 
fice." So  he  tells  us  to  make  everything  else  second- 
ary and  contributory  and  "go  ye  into  all  the  world, 
and  proclaim  the  Good  News  to  every  creature."* 

LOVE  IS  EXPRESSED  IN  SOUL-WINNING 

If  a  man  is  really  a  Christian,  therefore,  the  in- 
dwelling life  and  constraining  love  of  Christ  will 
impel  him  to  go  out  into  all  his  portion  of  the  world 
and  seek  the  lost  for  Christ,  and  this  will  be  the 
normal  activity  and  the  main  business  of  his  life. 
For  what  the  love  of  God  was  and  did  through 
Christ  when  he  was  among  men,  it  will  also  be  and 
do  through  Christians  while  they  are  among  men. 
The  Hfe  of  God  must  act,  if  it  is  in  us,  and  it  must 
act  according  to  its  nature.    And  so  true  Christians 


ijohn  3:15.       ^j^uke  19:10.        sjohn   20:21.       4Mark   16:15. 


64  Every -Member  Evangelism 

who  are  in  normal  spiritual  health  will  give  their 
lives  in  seeking  the  lost,  using  whatever  secular 
pursuits  they  are  in  to  pay  expenses,  while  the  main 
line  business  of  their  lives  will  be  the  same  as  it 
was  with  Christ. 

The  conclusion  of  all  this  is  inevitable.  Christ's 
Program  of  every-member  evangelism  is  the  only 
thing  that  will  save  the  Church.  The  reason  is  that 
constant  soul- winning  activity  on  the  part  of  every 
Christian  is  the  life  of  Christ  in  us  normally  ex- 
pressed, and  will  therefore  keep  the  Church  in  vig- 
orous health;  while  ceasing  the  wojk  of  soul-win- 
ning means  the  life  of  Christ  abnormally  suppressed 
in  all  who  do  not  engage  in  it,  and  by  that  much 
heads  the  Church  toward  certain  death.  Normal 
exercise  of  the  life  that  is  in  us  means  vigor,  and 
strength,  and  abounding  vitality;  while  suppression 
of  normal  activity  and  lack  of  exercise,  means  in- 
creasing ill  health,  and  heads  us  in  the  direction  of 
death. 

Now  there  are  two  features  of  the  present  con- 
dition of  the  Church  that  need  most  serious  at- 
tention. One  is  the  present  increasing  decline  which 
is  becoming  an  alarming  drift  toward  death,  and 
the  other  is  the  imperative  call  for  revival  and  the 
renewal  of  vigorous  health. 

/.     The  Present  Decline 

The  present  condition  of  the  Church,  both  in 
numerical  and  spiritual  strength,  is  cause  for  serious 
apprehension,  to  say  the  least. 


This  Prosrram  Will  Save  the  Church       65 


'fc> 


There  is  an  increasingly  small  fraction  of  pro- 
fessed Christians  who  ever  make  any  personal  ef- 
fort whatever  to  win  a  lost  soul  to  Christ,  and  com- 
paratively few  even  of  the  most  earnest  of  them 
ever  do  much  of  that  work  except  during  the  short 
period  of  the  year  when  evangelistic  meetings  are 
on.  And  even  then  the  efforts  of  most  of  them  are 
put  forth  largely  to  get  the  lost  to  church,  with  little 
or  no  direct  effort  to  get  them  to  receive  Christ.  Ask 
even  some  of  the  most  active  to  sit  down  by  an  in- 
quirer, open  up  the  way  of  salvation,  and  lead  him 
into  an  assurance  of  acceptance  through  faith,  and 
they  are  practically  helpless.  And  as  for  soul- 
winners  who  are  always  at  it  wherever  they  are, — 
well,  the  most  of  us  never  met  a  person  of  that  kind. 

At  the  Northern  Baptist  Convention  in  Atlantic 
City  in  1918,  Dr.  Emory  W.  Hunt,  in  speaking  of 
how  the  Church  is  neglecting  its  real  task,  said: 
*'It  does  sadly  neglect  the  very  class  to  seek  which 
its  Master  sent  it:  the  unchurched  masses.  I  am 
quite  aware  that  such  a  broad  statement  will  at 
once  challenge  an  indignant  reply  from  the  church 
which  is  innocently  unconscious  in  this  neglect.  To 
be  sure,  the  preacher  is  constantly  voicing  the  wide 
invitation  that  'whosoever  will  may  come,'  and  oc- 
casionally hints  that  every  one  needs  to  come.  Just 
about  enough  individuals  out  of  the  great  mass  of 
humanity  are  responding  to  its  feeble  invitation  to 
quiet  the  conscience  of  the  Church,  to  recruit  its 
wasted  numbers,  and  to  continue  its  existence.  But 
the  Church  has  not  even  faced  the  question  why  its 


^d  Every -Member  Evangelism 

appeal  is  not  more  persuasive.  It  is  not  unfair  to 
say  that  the  average  church  is  content  to  maintain 
services  and  to  save  its  own  life.  With  such  a  mes- 
sage as  the  Church  has  to  give,  and  with  so  pitiful 
a  need  of  it  as  this  weary  world  feels,  the  best 
thought  and  purpose  of  the  Church  ought  to  be 
given  to  the  question  of  how  to  bring  these  two  to- 
gether, and  of  what  the  mis  judgments  are  which 
keep  them  apart." 

Ah,  yes !  "Such  a  message" ;  "so  pitiful  a  need" ; 
"how  to  bring  these  two  together."  There  is  only 
one  way,  and  that  is  to  give  the  Lordship  of  Christ 
practical  acknowledgment  by  a  literal  obedience  to 
the  Great  Commission. 

But  we  are  increasingly  disobedient  to  that  com- 
mand, and  the  result  is,  the  Church  is  dying. 

1.     Look  at  the  Numerical  Decline 

Figures  may  mean  much  or  little,  of  course,  but 
here  are  a  few  that  at  least  indicate  that  the  direc- 
tion of  the  present  movement  in  the  Church  is 
toward  death. 

Up  to  the  beginning  of  this  century  the  Church 
in  America  was  gaining  faster  than  the  population. 
In  1800,  there  were  ten  church-members  out  of 
every  145  inhabitants.  In  1900,  it  was  ten  out  of 
every  45.  But  the  increase  steadily  slowed  up 
toward  the  end  of  the  century,  until  from  1900  to 
1910  the  gain  in  the  Church,  according  to  Dr.  Josiah 
Strong,  barely  kept  pace  with  the  percentage  of  gain 
in   the   population,    while   from    1910  to    1914   the 


This  Program  Will  Save  the  Church       67 

slowing-up  process  continued  and  indeed  became 
more  serious/  And  during  the  war  the  Church  lost 
out  at  such  an  alarmingly  increasing  rate  that  the 
figures  of  Dr.  H.  K.  Carroll,  pubHshed  in  1920  for 
the  previous  year,  give  the  Methodists,  North  and 
South,  a  net  loss  of  86,000,  the  Presbyterians 
41,000,  the  Disciples  17,000,  and  the  Northern  Bap- 
tists 9,000,  with  only  the  Southern  Baptists  show- 
ing a  net  gain,  which  was  32,000.  The  fact  is, 
therefore,  that  the  war  seems  simply  to  have  accel- 
erated what  was  already  going  on  throughout 
Christendom.  Rather  large  gains  are  reported  for 
the  past  two  years,  but  the  figures  are  not  nearly  as 
encouraging  as  they  appear  to  be,  when  the  gain  in 
population  and  other  factors  are  taken  into  con- 
sideration. 

The  situation  in  the  Sunday-school  is  equally 
alarming.  According  to  the  Interchurch  World 
Movement  Survey,  the  Protestant  Sunday-school 
enrollment  in  the  United  States  in  1916  was  21,800,- 
000.  In  1920  it  had  shrunk  to  15,600,000,  over 
6,000,000  in  four  years !  At  that  time— in  1920— 
there  were  over  27,000,000  children  and  young  peo- 
ple under  twenty-five  who  were  nominally  Protest- 
ant who  were  not  enrolled  in  any  Sunday-school. 

From  other  parts  of  Christendom,  also,  comes  the 
same  alarming  story.    In  a  period  of  six  years  pre- 

1  "The  average  annual  increase  of  population  from  1900  to  1910 
was  2.1  percent.  The  annual  increase  of  the  evangelical  church 
membership  was  sometimes  above  and  sometimes  below  that  figure. 
Including  everything  which  calls  itself  religious,  the  increase  of 
church  membership  in  the  year  1910  was  1.81  percent;  in  1911  it 
was  1.68  percent;  in  1912  it  was  1.6  percent;  in  1913  it  was  1.79 
percent;  and  in  1914  it  was  2.05  percent."  ("The  New  World- 
Religion,"   by  Josiah   Strong,  D.D.,  Doubleday,  Page  &  Co.) 


68  Every -Member  Evangelism 

ceding  the  war,  the  Church  of  England  in  Great 
Britain  lost  far  in  excess  of  300,000  from  their 
Sunday-schools,  and  in  nine  years  the  Non-Con- 
formists lost  400,000. 

Across  a  period  of  twelve  years  at  about  the  same 
time  the  Baptist  Churches  in  Great  Britain  had 
a  net  loss  of  24,000  from  their  membership,  and 
85,000  from  their  Sunday-schools,  the  decline  be- 
ing steady  from  year  to  year. 

One  of  the  most  serious  features  in  the  numerical 
decline  is  the  increasing  lapsing  of  church  member- 
ship. 

One  of  the  larger  denominations — the  Presby- 
terian,— lost  throughout  the  world  in  three  years 
just  before  the  war  over  260,000  by  lapse  of  mem- 
bership, and  that  denomination  is  steadily  losing 
50,000  a  year  from  that  cause. 

In  a  dozen  states  of  which  Chicago  is  the  com- 
mercial center,  40,000  were  received  into  the  Baptist 
churches  in  a  year  just  preceding  the  war,  while 
in  the  same  year  the  names  of  14,000  were  erased. 

During  1919,  the  Baptist  churches  of  the  North 
erased  three  names  from  their  rolls  for  every  five 
received. 

In  nearly  600  English  Baptist  churches  during  a 
period  of  pre-war  years,  out  of  every  1,000  coming 
into  the  churches,  666  were  lost  by  other  causes 
than  death. 

The  Rev.  Gwilym  O.  Griffith,  writing  of  the  Eng- 
lish Baptist  decline,  puts  his  finger  on  the  cause  when 
he  says,  "The  great  days  of  the  Free  churches  have 


This  Program  Will  Save  the  Church       69 


't) 


not  been  the  days  when  they  have  devised  ingenious 
allurements  to  bribe  the  masses  into  half-empty 
sanctuaries,  but  when  they  have  gone  out  to  the 
fields  and  market  places  and  village  greens  and 
take7i  the  Gospel  to  the  people/'  (Emphasis  the 
author's.) 

Right  here  we  have  the  real  cause  of  the  alarm- 
ing situation.  We  are  increasingly  disobedient  to 
the  Great  Commission,  and  the  results  we  are  reap- 
ing are  the  inevitable  fruitage  of  our  disobedience. 

But  suppose  the  tide  turns,  the  dechne  in  additions 
to  the  churches  is  arrested,  and  the  Church  appears 
to  be  regaining  her  former  rate  of  growth,  is  that 
in  itself  an  indication  of  returning  spiritual  vigor? 

That  depends  altogether  on  the  basis  on  which 
the  results  are  obtained.  If  the  efforts  at  increasing 
the  membership  of  the  churches  succeed  only  in  add- 
ing a  larger  proportion  of  unsaved  to  the  already 
*'mixed  multitude,"  if  the  present  drift  from  the 
faith  and  the  increasingly  loose  and  worldly  methods 
of  getting  members  are  to  keep  pace  with  the  grow- 
ing church  rolls,  the  Church,  instead  of  regaining 
lost  ground,  will  rather  be  taking  to  herself  that 
which  will  only  the  more  certainly  insure  her  final 
decay  and  disintegration. 

As  this  book  goes  out  there  would  seem  to  be 
some  slight  indications  of  an  apparent  turn  in  the 
tide  of  decline,  but  the  apostasy  from  the  faith  is 
not  being  arrested,  nor  are  the  conditions  admitting 
to  membership  being  raised,  but  rather  lowered,  if 
anything,  and  what  promise  can  our  drives  for  in- 


70  Every -Member  Evangelism 

creased  membership  hold  under  such  conditions? 
Nothing  but  the  promise  of  further  worldliness  and 
apostasy. 

2.     Look  at  the  Spiritual  Decline 

One  evidence  of  the  decline  is  seen  in  the  growing 
tendency  to  substitute  worldly  methods  and  machin- 
ery in  Church  life  for  the  guidance  and  power  of  the 
Holy  Spirit.  The  impression  increasingly  prevails 
that  the  Church  is  simply  an  institution  whose  pros- 
perity can  be  assured  by  applying  the  same  methods 
used  by  the  world.  We  are  even  going  to  the  length 
of  deliberately  seeking  the  friendship  and  co-opera- 
tion of  men  who  know  nothing  by  experience  of 
the  grace  of  God  and  spiritual  things,  and  who  are 
therefore  living  in  enmity  against  God.  We  are 
utterly  forgetting  that  if  the  Church  is  faithful  she 
will  testify  against  the  world  that  its  works  are 
evil,  and  that  in  return  she  will  receive — not  its 
friendship  and  co-operation,  but  its  enmity  and  an- 
tagonism. We  seem  altogether  to  have  lost  sight 
of  the  fact  that  we  can  hardly  hope  to  win  men  out 
of  the  world  into  salvation  in  Christ  without  point- 
ing out  the  irreconcilable  difference  between  the 
Church  and  the  world  so  clearly  as  to  show  them 
what  they  are  to  be  saved  out  of  as  well  as  into. 
The  fact  is,  great  sections  of  the  Church  do  not 
see  this  difference,  and  this  is  why  they  are  so  ready 
to  adopt  the  carnal  methods,  measures  and  means 
of  the  world  for  doing  the  spiritual  work  of  God. 

Dr.  Jam.es  A.   Maxwell,   writing  on  "A   Partial 


This  Program  Will  Save  the  Church       71 

Eclipse  of  the  Church,"  says,  ''In  nature,  aim  and 
method,  the  Church  has  no  parallel  or  competitor 
in  the  world.  It  stands  alone.  It  is  distinct  from 
everything  else.  In  what  it  is,  in  what  it  does, 
in  how  it  does  it,  there  is  no  institution  like  the 
Church,  or  a  church.  It  imitates  nothing,  it  is  de- 
pendent on  nothing  of  the  world.  It  is  in  the  world 
but  no  part  of  it.  There  is  no  point  [notice  this] 
where  the  Church  and  the  world  touch  or  fraternize. 
Between  no  two  things  is  there  greater  unlikeness. 
They  are  eternally  and  infinitely  distinct  and  sepa- 
rate. .  .  .  Because  business  enterprises  call  for 
certain  measures  in  order  to  succeed,  because 
political  prosperity  yields  to  certain  methods,  be- 
cause the  war  was  won  by  certain  movements,  the 
Church  should  not  be  led  to  depart  from  the  meth- 
ods peculiar  to  its  nature  and  mission." 

These  are  strange  words  in  the  light  of  some 
things  seen  in  the  Church,  and  the  principles  set 
forth  in  them  are  in  condemning  contrast  with 
many  of  the  methods  and  measures  already  at  work 
in  many  quarters.  The  fact  is,  the  adoption  of 
worldly  plans  is  one  of  the  things  that  is  killing 
the  Church.  To  adopt  a  program  that  succeeds  in 
the  world,  but  that  God  never  gave  to  his  Church, 
is  a  straight  pathway  to  failure.  Only  God's  Pro- 
gram will  succeed. 

The  Drift  Into  Pleasure 

The  decline  in  the  Church  is  also  uncovered  in 
her  drift  into  worldly  pleasure.  The  fact  that  a 
growing  proportion  of  church-members  are  enam- 


72  Every- Member  Evangelism 

ored  of  the  pleasures  of  the  world  indicates  un- 
mistakably the  steady  and  alarming  decline  in  her 
spiritual  health.  The  letting  down  of  the  bars  on 
worldly  amusements,  the  growing  tendency  to  con- 
done rather  than  condemn  them,  and  their  increas- 
ing popularity  among  church-members,  tell  all  too 
plainly  which  way  the  Church  is  headed.  A  gen- 
eration ago  some  one  said,  '*I  look  for  the  Church 
and  I  find  it  in  the  world ;  I  look  for  the  world  and 
I  find  it  in  the  Church."  If  this  was  true  then> 
what  about  conditions  now? 

It  is  all  right  for  the  Church  to  be  in  the  worlds 
provided  the  world  is  not  in  the  Church.  It  is  not 
when  the  ship  is  launched  into  the  water,  but  when 
the  water  gets  into  the  ship  that  she  sinks.  It  is 
when  the  Church  is  in  the  world  and  at  the  same 
time  not  of  it  that  she  can  rescue  men  out  of  the 
world,  and  in  just  the  proportion  in  which  the 
world  gets  into  the  Church,  in  just  that  proportion 
will  her  work  of  rescue  decline. 

This  is  why  the  present  condition  of  worldliness 
in  the  Church  is  so  well  pleasing  to  Satan.  He  can 
use  it  in  his  business.  For  if  there  is  little  or  no 
apparent  difference  between  the  Church  and  the 
world,  he  can  show  that  there  is  no  need  of  salva- 
tion. There  is  nothing  to  be  saved  from.  The  ex- 
ternally decent  life  that  church-members  live  is  all 
there  is  of  salvation.  This  is  the  lie  that  worldly 
church-members  help  Satan  to  propagate.  And  this 
is  one  of  the  reasons  why  the  Church  is  in  a  de- 
cline.    Her  worldliness  is  closing  her  mouth  and 


This  Program  Will  Save  the  Church       73 

making  her  soul-saving  testimony  in  the  name  and 
power  of  Christ  impossible.  And  it  is  also  pro- 
ducing a  decHne  in  her  testimony  against  the  world, 
which  is  one  reason  why  the  bars  are  coming  down 
and  the  world  is  coming  in  like  a  flood. 

THE    GROWING   APOSTASY 

One  of  the  most  unmistakable  proofs,  however, 
of  the  present  desperate  condition  of  the  Church  is 
her  steady  drift  from  the  fundamentals  of  the  faith. 
This  drift  has  been  going  on  increasingly  for  a  gen- 
eration or  more,  and  has  now  become  too  apparent 
and  marked  to  be  ignored  or  explained  away. 

While  the  fences  between  the  denominations 
have  been  coming  down,  another  has  been  going 
up  right  through  the  heart  of  evangelical  Protest- 
antism which  is  dividing  them  into  two  camps,  in 
one  of  which  are  those  who  hold  with  unswerving 
loyalty  to  the  so-called  orthodox  faith,  and  in  the 
other  of  which  are  those  who  hold  more  or  less 
with  the  views  of  the  Modernists  and  Destructive 
Critics.  So  apparent  has  this  division  become  that 
Unitarians  churches  are  advertising  that  the  Unita- 
rians in  other  denominations  will  be  welcomed  with 
them.  The  result  is  that  these  two  groups  are  be- 
coming increasingly  restive  in  each  other's  com- 
pany, for  how  "can  two  walk  together,  except  they 
be  agreed?"^ 

What  the  outcome  of  this  condition  will  be  it  is 
not  within  the  purpose  of  the  writer  even  to  remark 


^Amos.    3:3. 


74  Every- Member  Evangelism 

upon  here.  It  is  the  fact  itself  as  indicating  the 
present  condition  of  the  Church  that  we  are  after. 

One  thing  is  sure,  however,  and  that  is  that  the 
present  situation  must  change  very  radically  for  the 
better  soon,  or  the  present  decline  cannot  be 
stopped.  For  this  is  one  of  the  chief  contributing 
causes  of  the  decline.  Any  loss  of  conviction  con- 
cerning the  eternal  verities  throws  wide  open  the 
door  for  the  entrance  of  worldly  living  and  worldly 
methods,  and  all  these  things  together  are  killing 
the  Church. 

Think  of  the  serious  annual  lapsing  of  church- 
membership.  What  is  the  fundamental  cause  of 
it?  Receiving  the  unregenerate  into  church  mem- 
bership !  "Demas  hath  forsaken  me,  having  loved 
this  present  world,"^  said  Paul.  And  if  Demas 
loves  this  present  world  enough  to  forsake  the 
Church,  he  was  probably  never  born  again,  for  **if 
any  man  love  the  world,  the  love  of  the  Father  is 
not  in  him,"2  and  probably  never  was  in  him,  or 
he  would  not  have  lapsed  into  the  world. 

And  what  opens  the  way  for  the  unregenerate 
to  join  the  church?  The  present  day  departure 
from  the  fundamental  doctrines  of  "the  faith  which 
was  once  for  all  delivered  unto  the  saints,"^  and 
the  resulting  lack  of  vital,  saving  message  to  tes- 
tify to  the  lost. 


12  Tim.  4:10.       ^John  2:15.       sjude  3   (Gr.). 


This  Program  Will  Save  the  Church       75 

WHAT   LIES    BACK    OF    THE    DRIFT 

Back  of  all  this  lies  the  fact  that  the  life  of 
Christ  in  the  Church  is  being  increasingly  sup- 
pressed by  the  failure  of  his  people  to  go  out  into 
their  personal  worlds  in  individual  work  for  in- 
dividuals. Disobedience  to  the  Great  Commission 
is  what  is  working  death  in  the  body.  The  weak- 
ness and  anemia  induced  by  the  persistent  inactivity 
of  the  members  make  it  impossible  for  the  body 
to  throw  off  the  diseases  that  are  gnawing  at  her 
vitals.  There  is  but  one  thing  to  do,  and  that  is 
to  return  to  that  willingness  to  obey  that  always 
commands  and  opens  the  way  for  the  inflow  of  those 
healing  currents  of  the  divine  life  which  alone  can 
drive  disease  out  and  restore  full  health  and  vigor. 

It  is  no  wonder  that  Dr.  A.  H.  Strong,  speak- 
ing at  the  Baptist  May  Anniversaries  in  1904, 
should  express  concern.  He  said,  "My  greatest 
concern  is  lest  we  should  cease  to  be  a  witnessing 
Church.  Not  sermons,  but  individual  voices  of 
private  members  of  the  Church  are  to  evangelize 
the  world.  When  the  Romans  shortened  their 
swords  they  lengthened  their  territories.  Wher- 
ever we  have  had  this  hand-to-hand  work  our  in- 
crease has  been  great.  When  we  cease  to  believe 
that  men  are  lost,  cease  in  private  to  urge  them  to 
come  to  Christ,  the  glory  will  depart  from  us.  The 
church  that  ceases  to  be  evangelistic  will  soon  cease 
to  be  evangelical,  and  the  church  that  ceases  to  be 
evangelical  will  soon  cease  to  exist." 


76  Every- Member  Evangelism 

Then  back  of  all  this  decline,  back  of  all  the 
weakness  and  criminal  indifference  of  the  Church, 
lies  prayerlessness.  Prayer  is  the  Christian's  vital 
breath,  and  we  are  breathing  more  and  more 
feebly — the  present  decHning  health  of  the  Church 
indicates  how  feebly.  Those  burdens  of  prayer 
for  the  Church,  and  those  agonized  yearnings  over 
the  lost  that  our  fathers  knew — where  are  they  in 
the  Church  to-day?  If  God's  people  would  go  to 
their  knees  and  wait  on  him  as  in  other  days,  how 
quickly  would  the  whole  being  be  opened  for  the 
normal  inflow  of  the  divine  life  and  the  normal 
outflow  of  the  divine  service  for  the  lost!  This 
brings  us  to  the  other  side  of  the  question. 

II.     The  Need  of  Revival 

The  conditions  hinted  at  in  the  last  few  pages 
are  proof  enough  that  there  is  desperate  need  of 
revival  in  the  Church.  The  working  of  death  in 
the  body  can  never  be  arrested  except  by  a  renewed 
inflow  of  life.  The  revival  of  spiritual  vitality  is 
the  only  thing  that  will  drive  out  disease  and  bring 
back  abounding  health  and  normal  service.  But 
the  question  is,  how  is  this  to  be  brought  about? 

There  is  but  one  way.  When  Christ  said,  "Lo, 
I  am  with  you  all  the  days,  even  unto  the  con- 
summation of  the  Age,"^  he  based  that  promise 
of  his  active  and  abiding  presence  on  a  condition. 
He  preceded  the  promise  by  the  command  to  "Go 
into  all  the  world  and  disciple  the  nations,"^  and 


^Matt.    28:20    (Gr.).     'Matt.    28:19    (Gr.). 


This  Program  Will  Save  the  Church       77 


't> 


then  assuming  that  we  would  obey,  he  assured  us 
of  his  active  presence  as  we  went. 

WHAT   SPIRITUAL    HEALTH    IS 

This  active  presence  of  Christ  means  the  con- 
stant inflow  of  his  Hfe  to  be  used  in  the  constant 
outflow  of  our  service.  This  is  what  Paul  refers 
to  when,  in  speaking  of  his  own  testimony  to  Christ, 
and  of  his  yearning  to  win  the  lost  and  perfect  the 
saved,  he  says,  "Whereunto  I  also  labour,  striving 
according  to  his  working,  which  worketh  in  me 
mightily."'^  While  there  was  an  outflow  of  serv- 
ice in  obedience  to  the  Great  Commission,  there 
was  an  inflow  of  Christ's  life  enabling  Paul  for 
his  obedience.  Christ  could  keep  his  promise  be- 
cause Paul  met  the  condition. 

And  he  will  do  the  same  thing  with  us.  When 
and  as  long  as  we  consent  to  do  that  which  is  the 
normal  expression  of  his  life  in  us,  we  will  have 
the  constant  inflow  of  his  life.  But  when  we  start 
out  on  any  service  to  which  he  has  not  called  us, 
his  life  will  at  once  be  suppressed  within  us  and 
we  shall  be  left  to  our  own  resources ;  because  if 
we  do  not  allow  his  Hfe  to  act  through  us  accord- 
ing to  its  nature,  it  cannot  act  at  all. 

Right  here  is  the  true  cause  of  spiritual  ill-health. 
When  we  cease  doing  what  is  normal  to  his  life 
within  us,  or  when  we  start  out  to  do  what  he  has 
never  called  us  to  do,  the  outflow  of  divine  service 
is  at  an  end,  and  therefore  the  inflow  of  the  divine 


»Col.    1:29. 


78  Every- Member  Evangelism 

life  is  suppressed.  And  suppressed  life  brings  ill- 
health. 

Here  is  also  indicated  the  pathway  to  that  re- 
newal of  spiritual  vitality  for  want  of  which  the 
Church  is  dying  to-day.  Willingness  for  the  divine 
service  will  bring  immediate  response  in  the  in- 
flow of  the  divine  life,  which  will  both  drive  out 
disease  and  produce  abounding  health.  Spiritual 
health  is  certain  when  he  who  is  our  life  is  given 
constant  access  to  the  whole  being,  and  his  access 
to  our  whole  being  is  certain  when  we  are  in  the 
attitude  of  consent  to  his  will.  It  is  this  alone  that 
will  open  the  doors  for  Christ  to  possess  us  in  his 
fulness,  and  a  continuance  in  this  attitude  is  the 
only  thing  that  will  keep  the  doors  open. 

This  is  why  there  is  such  a  crying  need  for  re- 
vival in  the  Church  to-day.  A  revival  is  the  only 
thing  that  will  drive  out  disease  and  renew  spirit- 
ual vigor.  A  revival  is  not  a  series  of  evangelistic 
meetings,  but  it  is  that  opening  of  the  whole  being 
to  God  which  permits  the  renewed  inflow  of  his 
reviving  hfe  into  ours.  A  series  of  meetings  may 
bring  us  to  see  our  need  of  a  fresh  yielding  to  God, 
and  so  bring  revival,  or  a  revival  of  the  member- 
ship of  a  church  may  move  them  to  hold  a  series  of 
meetings  to  reach  the  lost;  but  the  revival  we  need 
is  not  extra  meetings,  but  a  renewal  of  the  life  of 
God  within  us. 


This  Program  Will  Save  the  Church       79 
1.    A  Revival  Will  Drive  Out  Disease 

WORLDLINESS    WILL    GO   OUT 

WorldHness  is  unthinkable  in  a  church  that  be- 
comes obedient  to  the  Great  Commission,  and 
thereby  opens  the  way  for  the  renewal  of  the 
divine  life  within.  One  of  the  reasons  why  worldly 
things  ever  find  their  way  into  any  life  is  that  the 
life  is  not  being  given  to  God  for  the  lost.  For 
when  soul-winning  stops,  the  divine  life  is  thereby 
suppressed  within,  and  this  opens  the  way  for  the 
entrance  of  any  and  all  those  things  of  the  world 
which  the  unhindered  life  of  Christ  within  would 
otherwise  keep  out.  A  Christian  who  loves  worldly 
things  advertises  his  spiritual  ill-health,  and  a 
worldly  church  proclaims  to  the  world  that  it  is 
living  in  disobedience  to  its  Lord.  And  there  is  no 
certain  cure  for  this  condition  except  such  a  com- 
plete surrender  to  soul-winning  activity  as  will  open 
the  way  for  an  unhindered  inflow  of  that  life  which 
alone  can  drive  the  world  completely  out. 

CHURCH   STRIFE  WILL  BE   IMPOSSIBLE 

Nothing  is  a  more  certain  proof  of  a  low  spirit- 
ual vitality  than  church  trouble.  There  is  no  place 
for  strife  where  spiritual  life  abounds,  for  at  the 
heart  of  spirituality  is  such  love  as  makes  strife 
impossible.  When  strife  comes  in,  it  is  certain  that 
love  has  gone  out.  The  only  certain  cure  for 
church  trouble  is  love,  and  love  takes  control  the 
moment  a  church  surrenders  to  the  work  of  soul- 


80  Every -Member  Evangelism 

winning  and  starts  out  after  the  lost.  Trouble- 
making  and  soul-saving  can  never  abide  together 
either  in  the  same  heart  or  the  same  church. 

DOCTRINAL   DRIFT   WILL   DISAPPEAR 

Doctrinal  troubles  and  questions  about  the  Word 
of  God  are  never  raised  by  active  soul-winners. 
The  fundamentals  of  the  faith  are  in  no  danger 
among  those  who  are  persistently  seeking  the  lost. 
Heresy  cannot  live  in  an  atmosphere  created  by 
spiritual  health,  but  will  soon  go  to  its  own. 

When  a  man  gets  into  personal,  first-hand  con- 
tact with  lost  men  and  seeks  to  win  them  to  Christ, 
he  soon  learns  how  lost  they  are,  and  that  the  only 
thing  that  will  avail  for  such  great  sinners  is  a  great 
salvation  provided  by  a  great  Saviour.  He  will 
raise  no  question  about  the  doctrines  of  sin,  de- 
pravity, and  hell,  nor  about  the  doctrines  of  grace, 
regeneration,  and  heaven.  He  will  not  listen  when 
!any  oile  says  there  are  flaws  in  "the  sword  of  the 
Spirit  which  is  the  word  of  God,"^  for  he  is  using 
it  and  he  sees  how  it  cuts.  A  soul-winner  who  is 
unsound  in  doctrine  is  an  impossibihty,  because  the 
active  inflow  of  the  life  of  Christ  makes  it  impos- 
sible. 

Then  there  are  the  isms,  osophies,  and  ologies 
of  the  day.  They  will  find  no  place  where  the 
divine  life  is  abounding.  The  way  to  drive  heresy 
out  of  a  church  is  to  make  it  too  warm  for  the 
heretics.     So  if  all  those  in  any  church  who  really 

^Eph.  6:17. 


This  Program  Will  Save  the  Church       81 


'& 


know  the  Lord  would  give  themselves  up  to  literal 
obedience  to  the  Lord's  command,  the  resulting 
abundance  of  the  divine  Hfe  would  soon  make  it  so 
uncomfortably  hot  for  Eddyites,  Russellites,  De- 
structive Critics,  and  all  other  heretics,  that  they 
would  soon  be  glad  to  go  to  their  own,  while  of  the 
rest  would  no  man  dare  join  himself  unto  them 
unless  he  had  been  really  born  again.  There  is  no 
room  for  false  doctrine  in  a  soul-winning  church. 

2.    A  Revival  Will  Bring  Spiritual  Health 

SPIRITUALITY  WILL  ABOUND 

We  are  in  a  day  of  multiplying  Bible  conferences 
and  conventions  for  the  deepening  of  the  spiritual 
life,  and  they  are  proving  an  increasing  blessing  to 
the  whole  Church  of  Christ.  May  they  greatly 
increase  in  number!  But  if  the  spiritual  food  re- 
ceived in  them  is  not  worked  out  in  the  normal 
activity  of  soul-winning,  they  may  even  prove  to 
be  a  curse.  Think  of  what  is  likely  to  result  from 
a  lot  of  suppressed  sermons  turned  sour  on  our 
spiritual  stomachs!  No  wonder  we  have  fussy 
spiritual  dyspeptics  among  us  who  are  ready  to 
fight  at  a  moment's  notice  over  some  non-essential 
doctrinal  technicality  which  is  more  personal  view- 
point than  vital  principle!  No  wonder  there  are  a 
few  cranks,  fanatics,  and  extremists  abroad  in  the 
land!  They  are  usually  the  kind  who  would  walk 
a  mile  to  a  convention  or  a  conference  to  hear  some 
famous  speaker,  while  they  would  hardly  walk 
across  the  street  to  take  Christ  to  a  lost  soul.    They 

7 


82  Every -Member  Evangelism 

will  pray  with  great  fervency,  *'0  Lord,  give  us  a 
blessing,"  but  they  will  mostly  forget  to  pray,  "O 
Lord,  make  us  a  blessing." 

But  those  who  are  really  anxious  for  a  deeper 
experience  of  God,  a  greater  knowledge  of  the 
Word,  and  a  higher  reach  of  spiritual  growth  will 
find  all  these  things  with  unfailing  certainty  in  the 
work  of  soul-winning.  For  nothing  else  so  opens 
all  the  avenues  of  the  soul  to  all  that  God  is  to  his 
people  and  all  that  he  has  to  reveal  of  his  truth. 
This  is  the  way  to  see  all  the  great  truths  in  their 
relations,  and  thereby  avoid  those  distressing  ex- 
tremes and  vagaries  that  we  sometimes  meet  with. 
The  teachings  received  in  Bible  conferences  and  like 
places  have  a  meaning  and  a  value  for  the  persis- 
tent soul-winner  that  they  can  have  fof-  no  one  else, 
for  such  a  Christian  will  understand  the  deep  things 
of  God  as  no  one  else  can.  The  deep  truths  of  the 
Word  are  not  open  to  scholarship,  but  are  under- 
stood through  the  Holy  Spirit  alone,  and  the  ever- 
active  anointing  of  the  Spirit  which  abides  on  the 
soul-winner  makes  the  deep  things  plain  and  the 
great  doctrines  luminous.  A  whole  church  full  of 
soul-winners  is  the  most  responsive  congregation  to 
which  any  spiritual  preacher  can  ever  minister  m 
the  things  of  God. 

Soul-winning,  therefore,  will  renew  the  abound- 
ing spirituality  of  the  early  Church,  and  bring  an 
abundance  of  health  and  vitality  that  will  once  more 
glorify  God  and  his  mighty  power  before  men. 


This  Program  Will  Save  the  Church       83 

THERE    WILL    BE    MATERIAL    PROSPERITY 

One  of  the  most  practical  evidences  of  spiritual 
vigor  in  a  church  is  the  condition  the  treasury  is 
in.  The  spirituality  that  results  from  soul-winning 
activity  will  end  all  financial  trouble.  For  the  Word 
says,  "Seek  ye  first  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  his 
righteousness;  and  all  these  things  [the  necessary 
material  resources]  shall  be  added  unto  you."^ 
Man's  method  is  to  reverse  this  divine  program 
and  read  it,  ''Seek  ye  first  many  millions  of  money, 
and  the  kingdom  of  God  will  be  added  unto  you." 
But  nothing  opens  the  pocket-book  and  brings  the 
money  out  in  generous  streams  like  the  normal 
working  in  the  heart  of  that  constraining  love  of 
Christ  that  sends  us  out  after  the  lost.  Here  alone 
is  the  secret  of  large  and  continuous  missionary 
giving;  here  alone  is  the  source  of  adequate  and 
unstrained  financial  support  of  local  work.  The 
financial  stream  will  be  small  and  inadequate  under 
the  pressure  of  human  mechanics ;  it  will  be  large 
and  generous  under  the  impulse  of  divine  dynamics. 

A  wonderful  illustration  of  this  principle  lies  in 
the  success  of  the  Southern  Baptists  in  their  great 
financial  effort  of  1920,  in  which  $92,500,000  was 
pledged.  The  writer  wrote  and  asked  Dr.  L.  R. 
Scarborough,  the  leader  of  the  campaign,  whether 
money-raising  or  soul-winning  was  most  empha- 
sized in  the  campaign,  and  he  replied,  *T  did  my 
best  as  General  Director  of  the  $75,000,000  cam- 

^Matt.    6:33. 


84  Every -Member  Evangelism 

paign  to  set  the  soul  of  Southern  Baptists  from 
their  knees  after  lost  souls.  The  emphasis  was 
placed  on  evangelism,  missions,  enlistment,  sur- 
render to  God,  and  the  deeper  things  of  the  spir- 
itual life,  and  I  feel  that  the  ninety-two  and  a  half 
miUion  dollars  which  we  secured  in  cash  and 
pledges  came  in  as  a  voluntary  expression  of  our 
people's  inner  life  and  love  for  a  lost  world.  I  am 
more  and  more  convinced  that  when  our  people 
come  to  God  and  go  with  him  after  the  lost,  all  the 
needful  things  for  the  Kingdom's  ongoing  will 
come  to  us." 

The  history  of  the  Southwestern  Baptist  Theo- 
logical Seminary,  at  Fort  Worth,  Texas,  of  which 
Dr.  Scarborough  is  President,  also  illustrates  what 
happens  in  a  Seminary  when  soul-winning  is  put 
first.  During  the  season  when  the  Seminary  was 
ten  years  old,  eighty-eight  students  and  members 
of  the  faculty  held  477  revival  campaigns,  saw 
10,252  profess  faith  in  Christ,  baptized  6,080,  and 
brought  into  Baptist  churches  by  baptism  and  letter 
9,611.  This  kind  of  work  is  the  steady  and  settled 
program  of  that  Seminary,  Dr.  Scarborough  him- 
self holding  from  eight  to  ten  evangelistic  cam- 
paigns a  year. 

Now  notice  the  financial  effect.  During  the  sea- 
son just  mentioned,  $318,000  was  raised  in  the 
meetings  for  denominational  purposes,  and  at  the 
end  of  ten  years  the  Seminary  itself  had  assets  of 
a  million,  practically  all  of  which  was  raised  on 
the  evangelistic  note.     "Seek  ye  first  the  kingdom 


This  Program  Will  Save  the  Church       85 

of  God,  and  his  righteousness;  and  all  these  things 
shall  be  added."^     God  keeps  his  word! 

Let  any  church  that  is  having  a  hard  time  finan- 
cially give  itself,  in  the  power  of  the  Spirit,  to 
every-member  evangelism,  and  see  if  God  will  not 
keep  his  promise.  They  must  go  after  the  lost 
with  no  thought  of  money,  of  course,  leaving  that 
absolutely  with  God,  but  no  church  can  possibly 
give  themselves  to  soul-winning  without  being 
blessed  financially. 

Now  if  obedience  to  the  Great  Commission  will 
give  a  church  vigorous  and  abounding  health  in 
both  spiritual  and  material  resources,  this  includes 
everything  that  goes  to  make  up  a  normal  condi- 
tion in  church  life. 

We  have  all  the  evidence  by  this  time  that  any 
one  can  need,  therefore,  that  the  only  thing  that 
can  save  the  Church  out  of  threatening  death  and 
into  vigorous  life  is  a  literal  following  of  the  divine 
Program.  If  further  evidence  is  needed,  however, 
it  will  appear  in  the  next  chapter  in  the  form  of 
actual  results  in  a  few  churches  that  are  approach- 
ing this  Program.  We  turn  now  to  the  side  of 
the  question  that  has  to  do  with  the  lost. 

^Matt.    6:33. 


CHAPTER  II 
THIS  PROGRAM  WILL  REACH  THE  LOST 

IF  the  Church  needs  to  express  the  divine  -Hfe  in 
order  to  keep  in  health,  the  lost  need  to  see  the 
divine  life  expressed  in  order  to  desire  to  have  it. 
The  world  is  always  face  to  face  with  that  kind 
of  life  whose  mottoes  are  "Safety  first,"  "Take 
care  of  yourself,"  "Look  out  for  number  one" ; 
and  there  is  nothing  in  it  that  is  attractive  or  satis- 
fying. But  whenever  they  meet  with  that  kind  of 
life  that  puts  sacrifice  first,  takes  care  of  the  help- 
less, and  looks  out  for  the  other  fellow,  they  find 
themselves  in  an  altogether  different  realm. 

THE    MARKS   OF   THE    CROSS 

At  the  heart  of  the  new  life  in  the  Christian  lies 
sacrificial  love,  which  shows  itself  out  before  men 
in  soul-winning  service — the  personal,  private,  man- 
to-man  kind.  That  this  takes  daily  sacrificial  living 
every  successful  soul-winner  will  testify.  It  takes 
the  crucified  life  to  witness  to  the  crucified  Christ. 
No  other  kind  can  do  so  with  success. 

The  reason  is  that  the  world  has  much  the  same 
attitude  toward  the  testimony  of  Christians  to  the 
risen  Christ  that  Thomas  had  toward  the  testimony 
of  the  disciples  to  him.  When  they  told  him  Christ 
had  risen,  he  refused  to  believe  in  a  risen  Christ 


This  Program  Will  Reach  the  Lost       87 

until  he  had  seen  the  marks  of  the  cross  on  him. 
And  the  world  will  not  believe  we  are  risen  with 
Christ,  and  therefore  not  in  the  Christ  who  is  risen, 
until  they  can  see  the  marks  of  his  cross  on  us.  It 
has  been  said  that  the  world  will  never  believe  a 
man  is  a  Christian  until  it  sees  that  he  has  been 
crucified  and  lives  again. 

THE   CROSS    AND   SOUL-WINNING 

The  evidence  of  our  sacrifice  for  their  salvation 
must  therefore  be  visible  before  men  are  hkely  to 
believe  in  us,  and  they  must  believe  in  tis  before 
they  will  pay  much  heed  to  our  message.  And  we 
put  ourselves  where  men  will  believe  in  us  the 
moment  we  commit  ourselves  to  life-long  sacrificial 
service  for  their  salvation,  for  then  we  can  go  to 
them  with  the  marks  of  the  cross  upon  us.  Such 
Christians  can  get  a  hearing  for  their  testimony. 
Read  the  biography  of  Uncle  John  Vassar  for 
abundant  illustration.^ 

But  that  the  world  pays  little  attention  to  the 
Church  or  her  message  to-day,  and  that  the  unsaved 
are  therefore  going  wholesale  to  a  lost  world,  has 
already  been  abundantly  shown.  There  is  cer- 
tainly a  reason  for  this  fearful  situation,  and  we 
will  seek  to  find  it. 

/.     Why  the  Church  is  Failing 

The  lost  are  not  coming  to  church  services.  They 
never  did  come  in  any  great  numbers,  and  to-day, 
in   spite   of   all   our   modern   methods   and    frantic 


^American    Baptist   Publication   Society,    Philadelphia,    $1.00. 


88  Every -Member  Evangelism 

appeals,  they  are  coming  in  smaller  and  smaller 
numbers,  especially  when  revival  meetings  are  on. 
It  frequently  happens  that  after  a  most  appealing 
evangelistic  message  it  is  found  that  not  a  single 
unsaved  soul  is  in  the  audience.     Why? 

1.     The  Church  is  Making  the  Wrong  Appeal. 

The  thing  that  is  vitally  wrong  with  our  appeal  is 
that  the  dominant  emphasis  is  being  placed  more 
and  more  on  those  things  that  can  attract  only  the 
natural  man.  We  play  up  the  things  that  are  an 
appeal  to  the  senses.  We  bait  the  lost  with  fine 
music,  beautiful  architecture,  splendid  sociability, 
sensational  topics,  racy  discussions  of  current 
events,  and  even  moving  pictures ;  and  the  result  is 
that  when  they  do  come,  they  take  one  sniff  at  our 
bait  and  say  "Cheap!"  and  then  go  straight  back 
to  the  world  where  they  can  get  what  they  call  the 
"real  thing.'* 

Even  when  a  great  evangelistic  effort  is  being 
made,  most  of  the  Lord's  people  resort  to  an  appeal 
to  the  natural  man  to  get  the  lost  to  the  meetings 
by  emphasizing  the  crowds,  the  great  singing,  the 
spectacular  preaching,  and  other  natural  attrac- 
tions, and  many  an  evangelist  helps  it  along  by  his 
antics  in  the  pulpit. 

Indeed,  it  is  even  possible  for  much  of  the  ear- 
nest and  sober  appeal  of  evangehst  and  pastor  to  be 
aimed  at  the  natural  man  only,  and  much  more  of 
that  is  being  done  to-day  than  most  of  us  realize. 


This  Program  Will  Reach  the  Lost       89 

Whether  a  touching  story  or  a  direct  appeal  to  the 
emotions  is  aimed  only  at  the  natural  man  depends 
altogether  on  what  lies  back  of  the  appeal  in  the 
message  of  the  speaker.  Actors  and  novelists  make 
appeal  to  the  emotions,  but  their  appeals  are  purely 
to  the  natural  man,  with  no  thought  of  the  glory 
of  God  behind  them,  and  are  therefore  utterly  de- 
void of  spiritual  value. 

A    CRIME    AGAINST    THE    LOST 

For  the  Church  to  make  its  appeals  to  the  natural 
man  is  a  crime  against  the  lost!  For  it  is  not  only 
perfectly  useless  as  a  means  to  reach  them  for  God, 
but  it  may  even  become  a  sure  means  of  driving 
them  away  from  God  for  good.  Think  what  may 
happen  when  the  lost  desert  the  cheap  natural 
attractions  of  the  Church  and  go  back  to  the  world. 
They  are  likely  to  carry  away  with  them  not  only 
an  utterly  false  conception  of  the  nature  and  mis- 
sion of  the  Church,  but  also  a  determination  never 
to  go  back  again. 

When  a  great  gathering  of  laboring  men  will 
cheer  the  name  of  Christ  and  hiss  the  mention  of 
the  Church,  as  has  been  done,  it  is  extremely  sig- 
nificant. Of  course  the  cheering  may  mean  noth- 
ing as  to  their  real  attitude  toward  Christ,  but  the 
hissing  clearly  indicates  their  contempt  for  what- 
ever appeal  the  Church  has  made  to  them. 

When  the  men  in  the  World  War  gathered  to 
listen  to  a  preacher,  if  his  message  was  to  the 
natural  man  and  lacked  the  genuine  ring  and  the 


90  Every -Member  Evangelism 

right  appeal,  they  got  up  and  went  out.  But  never 
did  a  crowd  desert  a  man  who  had  a  heaven-sent 
appeal.  A  false  note  was  intolerable  to  the  soldiers, 
but  they  were  ready  for  the  genuine  thing  every 
time. 

A    HUMILIATION   OF  CHRIST 

The  appeal  of  the  Church  to  the  natural  man  is 
also  a  shameful  humiliation  of  our  Lord!  The 
world  has  already  humiliated  him  to  the  utmost 
limit  of  human  ability,  and  for  the  Church  to  drag 
him  down  before  a  world  that  loves  to  see  him 
humiliated  is  shameful  beyond  expression. 

When  will  we  learn  that  Christ  and  his  Church 
are  not  in  the  business  of  attracting  men  through 
their  senses?  When  shall  we  learn  that  Christ  is 
not  in  competition  with  the  world  for  the  attraction 
of  the  natural  man?  When  shall  we  learn  that  the 
world  can  outbid  us  at  every  point  in  all  those 
things  that  make  a  natural  appeal  only? 

The  children  of  this  world  are  expert  at  that 
business,  for  they  not  only  have  the  advantage  of 
continued  practice,  but  they  have  also  at  hand  all 
the  perfected  means  of  appeal,  from  the  most  re- 
fined to  the  most  degraded,  while  unregenerate 
humanity,  with  an  insatiable  demand  for  all  that 
the  world  has  to  offer,  stands  eager  to  respond  to 
their  every  appeal. 

The  Church  is  operating  in  an  entirely  different 
realm.  Our  mission  lies  altogether  in  the  spiritual 
realm,   a   realm   into   which   the   world   can  never 


This  Program  Will  Reach  the  Lost       91 

come,  and  in  which  the  world  can  never  offer  com- 
petition. 

This  is  one  great  reason  why  Satan  tempts  us 
out  of  our  own  sphere  of  appeal  into  that  of  the 
world,  for  if  we  yield  to  the  temptation,  we  not 
only  defeat  our  spiritual  appeal  or  else  leave  it 
unmade  altogether,  but  we  enter  a  realm  where  we 
will  be  not  only  utterly  powerless,  but  where  we 
will  even  become  the  hissing  and  the  by-word  of 
the  very  ones  we  seek  to  reach  for  God.  No  won- 
der he  is  doing  his  utmost  to  get  the  Church  into 
the  realm  of  worldly  appeal. 

2.     The  Church  is  Using  the  Wrong  Method 

While  the  lost  are  in  desperate  need  of  what  we 
have  to  give,  yet  there  is  among  them  no  conscious 
and  active  demand  for  it.  Their  demand  for  what 
the  world  has  to  offer  is  intensely  alive,  and  absorbs 
their  whole  attention.  But  their  demand  for  what 
the  Church  has  to  offer  is  altogether  dormant,  and 
they  have  no  time  nor  attention  to  give  to  it. 

Now  it  is  impossible,  in  the  nature  of  things,  for 
any  one  to  be  induced  to  go  after  something  for 
which  he  has  no  conscious  and  active  demand.  And 
so  for  the  Church  to  make  the  spiritual  appeal  to 
the  lost  when  their  demand  for  spiritual  things  is 
dormant,  without  doing  the  only  thing  that  will 
arouse  that  demand,  is  a  more  certain  pathway  to 
failure  than  it  can  ever  be  to  success.  No  matter 
how  earnest  or  even  frantic  our  appeal  may  be,  so 
long:  as  the  lost  are  conscious  of  no  demand  for 


92  Every -Member  Evangelism 

what  we  are  offering,  our  appeal  will  go  all  un- 
heeded. 

A   DEMAND    MUST   BE   CREATED 

There  is  therefore  one  thing  that  must  always  be 
done  before  a  spiritual  appeal  can  ever  mean  any- 
thing. A  demand  for  spiritual  things  must  he 
created. 

This  must  be  one  thing  Christ  had  in  mind  when 
he  told  us  to  go  out  into  the  highways  and  hedges 
and  compel  them  to  come  in.  He  did  not  mean 
thaf  they  are  to  be  taken  by  physical  force  and 
dragged  to  church,  but  that  we  are  to  do  something 
for  them  and  with  them  that  will  create  such  a 
demand  for  the  spiritual  things  the  Church  has  to 
offer  that  they  will  be  literally  compelled  to  come 
to  church  because  they  cannot  stay  away. 

This  is  being  done  universally  in  business.  A 
merchant  can  literally  compel  you  to  come  into  his 
store  by  creating  such  a  demand  for  what  he  has 
to  offer  that  you  are  unable  to  keep  from  going. 

This  was  done  with  the  writer  some  years  ago, 
while  a  pastor  in  Minneapolis. 

Answering  the  door-bell,  a  piano  personal  worker, 
usually  called  a  salesman,  introduced  himself  and 
asked  if  we  owned  a  piano. 

I  said,  "No,  but  we  have  an  organ  that  is  ade- 
quate for  our  present  needs." 

"Do  you  ever  expect  to  own  a  piano?"  he  asked. 

"Yes,"  I  said,  "we  may  get  one  some  day,  but 
we  are  not  interested  now.     Good  day." 


This  Program  Will  Reach  the  Lost       93 

But  he  gracefully  ignored  the  "Good  day,"  and 
said,  "Have  you  any  children?" 

*'Yes,"  I  said,  ''we  have  two." 

"Do  you  expect  to  give  them  music  lessons?" 

"Yes,  after  a  while,  when  they  are  older,  but  we 
are  not  ready  yet." 

"You  will  need  a  piano  when  they  start  to  take 
lessons,  and  it  will  be  to  your  advantage  to  get  one 
now  while  our  firm  is  making  a  special  reduction." 

"That  might  be,"  I  said,  "but  my  present  income 
will  not  permit  of  it,  and  as  I  am  quite  busy  this 
morning,  I  will  have  to  say,  Good  day !" 

But  he  very  skilfully  spoiled  my  "Good  day" 
again  by  saying  in  his  most  engaging  manner,  "But 
we  have  good  used  pianos  that  can  be  bought  on 
payments  as  low  as  three  dollars  a  month,  and  with 
your  permission  we  will  set  into  your  house  without 
obligation  for  a  month  any  one  you  want  to  pick 
out,  used  or  new." 

That  was  where  he  got  me,  though  I  did  not  let 
him  know  it  then. 

I  said,  "That  is  a  very  generous  offer,  but  I  can't- 
consider  it  to-day,"  and  he  finally  left  feeHng  he 
had  lost  out. 

But  within  two  days  I  was  in  that  piano  store 
picking  out  a  piano ! 

How  did  that  salesman  get  me  there? 

By  coming  to  my  house  and  doing  the  kind  of 
personal  work  that  created  in  me  such  a  demand 
for  what  his  store  had  to  offer  that  I  could  not 
stay  away.     There  was  lying  back  in  my  mind  a 


94  Every -Member  Evangelism 

half  intention  of  owning  a  piano  some  day,  but  it 
was  dormant  until  that  salesman's  personal  work 
brought  it  into  such  activity  that  I  was  compelled 
to  go  to  the  store  to  get  it  satisfied.  That  salesman 
had  compelled  me  to  come  in. 

This  is  the  way  to  bring  the  lost  to  church.  Do 
the  thing  with  them  and  for  them  that  will  create 
in  them  such  a  demand  for  the  spiritual  things  the 
Church  has  to  offer  that  they  will  be  compelled  to 
come  in. 

GOD    MUST   CREATE  THE   DEMAND 

But  when  we  begin  to  inquire  how  we  are  to 
create  this  demand,  we  are  thrown  altogether  be- 
yond our  own  resources.  The  demand  that  must 
be  created  is  a  spiritual  demand,  and  only  God  can 
create  such  a  demand  in  the  unspiritual  soul  of  a 
lost  man.     We  are  helpless. 

The  fact  is,  not  only  have  the  lost  no  conscious 
demand  for  spiritual  things,  they  are  naturally  an- 
tagonistic to  them.  The  one  who  said,  **And  I,  if 
I  be  lifted  up  from  the  earth,  will  draw  all  men 
unto  me,"^  is  the  very  Christ  they  have  turned  their 
backs  on  and  crucified,  and  a  sight  of  him  con- 
demns, and  stings,  and  burns,  and  they  can  have 
no  natural  desire  to  go  where  the  one  they  have 
sinned  against  is  the  sole  attraction.  The  truth  is, 
the  heart  of  the  unsaved  is  ''enmity  against  God," 
and    the    things    of    the    Spirit    of    God — spiritual 


ijohn    12:32. 


This  Program  Will  Reach  the  Lost       95 

things — are  ''foolishness"  to  them,  and  they  are  so 
naturally  incapable  of  being  attracted  by  the  things 
of  the  Spirit — indeed,  these  things  are  so  unat- 
tractive to  them — that  they  prefer  to  stay  as  far 
away  as  possible  from  the  place  where  these  things 
are  the  central  theme. 

There  is  therefore  only  one  thing  that  can  be 
done  to  create  a  demand  for  what  the  Church  has 
to  offer.  A  miracle  must  be  worked.  Nothing 
short  of  this  will  be  of  the  least  avail.  For  some- 
thing must  take  place  in  the  hearts  of  lost  men  which 
will  compel  them  to  come  after  what  their  whole 
being  rebels  against.  The  Christ  they  have  wronged 
and  driven  as  far  out  of  his  own  universe  as  they 
could  get  him  must  somehow  become  so  attractive 
to  them  that  they  will  be  compelled  to  come  to  the 
place  where  he  is  lifted  up,  in  spite  of  all  the 
natural  blindness  and  enmity  of  their  hearts.  And 
only  a  miracle  can  bring  such  a  thing  to  pass,  and 
only  God  can  work  that  miracle. 

This  is  why  the  Church  is  failing.  We  are  try- 
ing to  do  with  our  human  methods,  and  our  appeals 
either  to  a  spiritual  demand  that  has  never  been 
created  or  to  the  unregenerate  heart  of  the  natural 
man,  what  a  miracle  worked  by  God  alone  can 
accomplish.  We  do  not  seem  to  realize  that  we 
ourselves  can  do  absolutely  nothing  that  will  create 
in  the  lost  such  a  demand  that  they  will  be  com- 
pelled to  come  where  the  Christ  they  have  crucified 
is  held  up.  We  do  not  seem  to  understand  that  an 
actual  miracle  is  demanded,  and  that  therefore  we 


96  Every- Member  Evangelism 

are  utterly  helpless.     This  brings  us  to  the  other 
side  of  the  question. 

//.     When  the  Church  Succeeds 

That  the  miracle  which  compels  lost  men  to  come 
to  church  and  to  yield  to  Christ  against  their  nat- 
ural inclination  is  being  worked  in  some  lives 
around  us  we  all  know.  But  that  it  is  not  being 
worked  in  the  hearts  of  the  great  masses  of  unsaved 
men  about  us  we  are  also  painfully  conscious. 

Now  God  can  work  this  miracle  when  the  Church 
becomes  the  channel  of  his  power  between  himself 
and  the  lost.  It  is  therefore  of  the  utmost  impor- 
tance that  we  find  out  just  what  we  must  do  in 
order  that  God  may  work  this  miracle  through  us 
among  the  great  masses  of  the  unsaved  about  us. 
In  other  words,  we  must  know,  if  God  has  revealed 
it,  what  is  the  fundamental  principle  that  lies  be- 
hind his  use  of  us  in  working  the  miracle  of  regen- 
eration.    Let  us  study  it. 

1,     The  Fundamental  Principle  Behind  the  Program 

In  bringing  the  lost  to  Christ  two  things  must 
always  be  done.  A  demand  for  spiritual  truth 
that  saves  must  be  created,  and  then  this  demand 
must  be  satisfied. 

That  which  creates  this  demand  Is  a  divinely 
quickened  consciousness  of  the  deep  need  of  salva- 
tion, and  that  which  satisfies  it  is  the  divinely  pro- 
vided remedy  for  sin  in  the  blood  of  Christ. 


This  Program  Will  Reach  the  Lost       97 

THE  PLACE   OF   PRAYER 

Behind  the  creation  of  this  demand  lies  prayer. 
The  disciples  were  saturated  with  the  spirit  of 
prayer  when  they  went  among  the  lost  at  Pente- 
cost, and  prayer  has  continued  to  be  the  background 
of  all  real  soul-saving  work  until  this  hour. 

Think  why  this  is.  The  Lord  has  told  us  that 
the  lost  cannot  receive  the  Holy  Spirit,  because  they 
see  him  not,  neither  know  him,  and  also  that  the 
natural  man  receives  not  the  things  of  the  Spirit- 
initial  among  which  is  conviction  of  sin — neither 
can  he  know  them,  for  they  are  spiritually  dis- 
cerned. 

Then  w.e  has  also  said,  *T  will  send  him  [the 
Comforter]  unto  you  [not  unto  the  world,  notice, 
for  the  world  cannot  receive  him].  And  when  he 
is  come  [to  you],  he  will  reprove  the  world  of  sin, 
and  of  righteousness,  and  of  judgment."^ 

Do  you  see  where  this  puts  the  Lord's  people? 
It  puts  us  squarely  between  God  and  the  lost  in  the 
miracle  of  the  conviction  of  sin — that  miracle  which 
creates  a  demand  for  the  things  of  the  Spirit  con- 
trary to  the  natural  inclinations  of  the  heart.  It 
makes  us  the  channel  of  God's  power  between  him- 
self and  the  lost. 

The  fact  that  the  lost  can  receive  the  Holy  Spirit 
in  his  conviction  of  sin  only  through  Christians  is 
abundantly  illustrated  by  the  fact  that  they  are  never 
led  to  salvation  except  through  those  who  are 
saved. 


»John    13:7-8. 
8 


98  Every- Member  Evangelism 

Now  prayer  somehow  gets  us  into  that  place 
where  God  can  use  us  as  channels.  One  thing  it 
does  is  to  bring  us  cleansing,  and  thus  fit  us  to  be 
channels.  God's  power  is  a  holy  power,  and  he 
cannot  compromise  his  holiness  by  letting  his  holy 
power  flow  through  an  unclean  channel.  His  arm 
is  never  shortened  that  it  cannot  save,  nor  his  ear 
heavy  that  it  cannot  hear,  but  our  sins  hide  his  face 
from  us  and  prevent  his  saving  power  from  flow- 
ing through  us.  What  a  fearful  thing  for  a  Chris- 
tian to  sin!  Sin  makes  us  a  barrier  instead  of  a 
channel! 

Prayer  also  does  another  thing.  It  not  only  fits 
us  to  be  channels,  but  it  opens  the  way  for  God 
actually  to  make  channels  of  us  between  himself 
and  the  lost.  Just  how  he  pours  his  power  through 
us  to  produce  conviction  of  sin  in  the  lost  we  shall 
never  know  here,  but  that  he  actually  does  it  all 
Christians  who  pray  for  the  lost  can  bear  abundant 
testimony.  Those  who  have  not  seen  this  miracle 
wrought  have  had  little  or  no  experience  in  divine 
things. 

Another  thing  that  must  be  borne  in  mind  is  that 
it  is  not  only  impossible,  apart  from  a  miracle,  for 
the  natural  man  to  receive  the  things  of  the  Spirit, 
but  that  Satan  is  also  blinding  the  minds  of  the 
unbelieving,  "lest  the  light  of  the  glorious  gospel 
of  Christ,  who  is  the  image  of  God,  should  dawn 
upon  them,"^  and  they  should  be  saved.  That  is, 
Satan's  blinding  is  directed  toward  the  Gospel,  that 

»2   Cor.   4:3,  4. 


This  Program  Will  Reach  the  Lost       ^^ 

the  unsaved  may  not  be  able  to  see  or  understand 
it.  And  so  the  blindness  of  men  as  to  what  the 
Gospel  really  is,  being  satanic  and  therefore  super- 
human, cannot  be  cured  by  human  means ;  a 
miracle  is  the  only  thing  that  will  do  it.  God 
himself,  therefore,  must  dispel  this  darkness,  and 
this  he  does  by  the  illumination  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
wrought  through  his  conviction  of  sin,  of  righteous- 
ness, of  judgment.  This  means  that  by  a  miracle 
the  Holy  Spirit  illumines  the  very  thing  that  Satan's 
superhuman  blinding  covers  up.  Conscience  can 
convince  a  sinner  that  it  is  a  sin  to  do  not,  but  only 
the  Holy  Spirit,  through  the  miracle  of  his  illumi- 
nation, can  convince  him  that  it  is  a  sin  to  believe 
not,^  and  He  does  this  by  holding  up  the  Christ  on 
whom  he  has  not  believed,  the  good  news  about 
whom  is  the  Gospel. 

It  is  precisely  at  this  point  that  prayer  does  its 
most  effective  work.  This  illuminating  work  of 
the  Spirit  is  dependent  on  prayer.  We  do  not  know 
why  this  is,  nor  how  prayer  opens  the  way  for  the 
Spirit's  illumination,  but  we  do  know  that  unless 
both  our  witnessing  and  soul-winning  ministry  are 
commenced,  carried  on,  and  consummated  in  prayer, 
little  or  no  illumination  will  attend  our  work.  Noth- 
ing can  take  the  place  of  prayer.  We  always  ad- 
vance in  our  evangelistic  work  only  so  fast  and  so 
far  as  we  advance  on  our  knees.  Prayer  produces 
the  atmosphere  through  which  alone  sinners  can 
hear  the  Word,  and  unless  they  hear  the  Word  the 

ijohn   16:9. 


100  Every- Member  Evangelism 

Holy  Spirit  is  unable  to  illumine  the  blinded  mind 
and  convince  the  heart  that  their  need  is  Christ 
alone.  Witnessing  apart  from  prayer,  no  matter 
how  convincing  to  the  reason,  or  even  how  convict- 
ing to  the  conscience,  may  prove  to  be  a  ''savour 
of  death  unto  death."  Prayer  opens,  and  prayer- 
lessness  closes,  the  channel  between  some  lost  soul 
and  God. 

THE    PLACE   OF  TESTIMONY 

If  the  Holy  Spirit,  then,  is  unable  to  convict  and 
regenerate  except  through  the  Word,  he  is  unable 
to  accomplish  his  work  in  a  heart  until  the  Word  is 
heard.  This  requires  witnesses.  And  so  just  as 
prayer  is  needed  to  open  the  way  for  the  witness- 
ing, so  witnessing  is  needed  to  accomplish  the  work 
for  which  the  praying  opened  the  way.  Neither 
can  be  effective  apart  from  the  other. 

Our  witnessing,  however,  does  not  produce  the 
conviction  and  the  conversion  of  all  who  hear  it. 
The  testimony  of  Christ  himself  did  not  produce 
that  result.  And  the  Gospel  has  never  reached  all 
the  lost  in  any  given  generation  from  Pentecost 
until  now.  Not  because  God  arbitrarily  decided 
that  he  would  not  permit  it  to  reach  them  all,  but 
because  those  who  were  not  reached  by  it  arbi- 
trarily decided  not  to  permit  God  to  reach  them 
with  it. 

God  foresaw  that  this  would  happen,  for  known 
to  him  are  all  events  of  both  time  and  eternity,  and 
so  he  has  told  us  beforehand  that  it  would  happen. 
The   Gospel,  he   said  through  James,  would   sue- 


This  Program  Will  Reach  the  Lost     101 

ceed  in  taking  out  from  among  the  Gentiles  a  people 
for  his  name/  but  not  that  all  the  Gentiles  would 
come  in  this  age,  and  certainly  not  all  the  Jews,  to 
whom  blindness  in  part  has  happened  until  the  end 
of  the  Age.-  If  the  Gospel  was  intended,  there- 
fore, to  save  all  men  in  any  one  generation  of  this 
age,  it  has  been  the  most  stupendous  failure  of  all 
human  history.  It  has  failed  more  than  sixty  times 
over,  for  there  have  been  that  many  generations 
since  Pentecost,  and  in  no  generation  has  there  been 
more  than  a  fraction  saved.  But  if  the  Gospel  was 
intended  to  be  ''the  power  of  God  unto  salvation  to 
every  one  that  believeth/'^  then  it  has  never  failed 
in  the  slightest  degree,  for  every  one  without  excep- 
tion who  has  believed  it  has  been  saved. 

But  even  though  w^e  may  know  beforehand  that 
many  of  the  unsaved  in  our  personal  worlds  may 
not  come,  that  does  not  release  us  in  the  least  from 
our  responsibility  to  take  the  Gospel  to  every  one 
and  beseech  them  in  Christ's  stead  to  be  reconciled 
to  God.  Christ's  command  was  to  take  the  Gospel 
to  ''every  creature/"^  and  all  obedient  disciples  will 
do  this,  not  knowing  as  we  do  so  which  shall  pros- 
per, whether  this  word  of  testimony  or  that. 

WITNESSING   AND    SOUL-WINNING 

This  brings  us  to  a  distinction  between  simple 
witnessing  and  the  work  of  soul-winning,  that  it  is 
of  the  utmost  importance  to  recognize.  There  is  a 
profound  difference  between  them.     Witnessing  is 

lActs    15:14.     'Rom.     11:25.     'Rom.     1:16.     *Mark    16:15. 


102  Every -Member  Evangelism 

the  divine  method  of  preparing  the  way  for  soul- 
winning,  but  it  does  not  result  in  the  winning  of  all 
to  whom  we  witness.  We  are  to  witness  to  all, 
without  exception,  but  we  can  do  successful  soul- 
winning  work  only  with  those  whom  the  Holy  Spirit 
is  able  to  bring  to  such  a  conviction  of  sin  as  results 
in  willingness  to  hear  about  Christ. 

It  is  because  many  workers  fail  to  see  this  dis- 
tinction, and  therefore  fail  to  watch  for  the  evi- 
dences of  the  Spirit's  convicting  work  in  the  heart, 
that  so  many  are  urged,  pushed,  crowded,  and  some- 
times even  forced  to  a  decision  which  is  superficial 
because  it  is  not  wrought  by  the  Holy  Spirit. 

Few  even  of  the  most  earnest  workers  seem  to 
know  that  there  are  two  kinds  of  conviction  of  sin: 
that  of  conscience,  and  that  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
Dr.  A.  J.  Gordon  spoke  of  the  former  as  "legal" 
conviction,  and  of  the  latter  as  "evangelical"  con- 
viction. And  it  is  because  of  ignorance  at  this 
point  that  so  many  workers  urge  those  who  have 
only  a  stirred  conscience  to  a  decision  that  does  not 
last,  because  behind  it  there  is  only  the  power  of  a 
human  resolution. 

The  difference  between  these  two  kinds  of  con- 
viction is  very  radical,  and  very  plain  to  the  spir- 
itually-minded when  once  they  have  seen  it.  Con- 
science convicts  us  of  a  broken  law ;  the  Holy  Spirit 
of  a  rejected  Christ.  Conscience  gives  us  a  vision 
of  sin  committed ;  the  Holy  Spirit  of  sin  canceled. 
Conscience  speaks  to  us  in  terms  of  morality ;  the 
Holy   Spirit   in   terms   of   spirituality.     Conscience 


This  Program  Will  Reach  the  Lost      103 

seeks  to  produce  good  works  in  us ;  the  Holy  Spirit 
seeks  to  produce  faith  in  us.  Conscience  urges  us 
to  repentance  toward  a  past  life;  the  Holy  Spirit 
to  "repentance  toward  God."^  Conscience  leads  us 
to  conversion  to  a  higher  ideal  of  living;  the  Holy 
Spirit  to  conversion  to  Christ.  Conscience  is  al- 
ways busy  in  all  men,  either  accusing  or  else  excus- 
ing ;  the  Holy  Spirit  operates  only  in  those  to  whom 
he  is  permitted  to  give  the  vision  of  a  crucified 
Christ.  This  shows  why  we  must  witness  to  all, 
for  only  so  can  the  way  be  opened  for  the  Spirit 
to  give  a  saving  vision  of  Christ  to  all  who  are 
willing  to  receive  it. 

When  these  distinctions  are  clearly  seen  it  be- 
comes easy  to  tell  when  the  Spirit  is  working  in  a 
heart,  and  when  the  interest  is  produced  only  by  a 
stirred  conscience.  The  one  in  whom  conscience 
only  is  at  work  will  talk  freely  and  even  intel- 
ligently in  terms  of  morality  and  the  humanities 
but  will  not  know  where  we  are  going  when  we 
show  the  utter  worthlessness  of  all  human  doings 
and  begin  to  witness  to  Christ.  Only  when  the 
Spirit  is  permitted  to  dispel  Satan's  blinding  by  the 
miracle  of  his  illumination  will  the  meaning  of 
Christ's  work  on  the  cross  begin  to  dawn. 

It  is  precisely  because  so  many  workers,  yes,  even 
some  pastors  and  evangelists,  fail  to  see  the  vital 
distinction  between  these  two  kinds  of  conviction 
that  the  number  is  increasing  in  our  churches  who, 
urged  to  it  only  by  the  lashings  of  an  accusing  con- 

»Acts   20:21. 


104  Every -Member  Evangelism 

science,  were  converted  simply  to  a  higher  ideal  of 
living,  but  have  no  knowledge  whatever  of  salva- 
tion through  Christ.  In  too  many  cases  our  evan- 
gelistic special  efforts  and  campaigns  and  drives 
have  increased  church-membership  as  their  goal 
more  than  the  winning  of  the  lost  to  Christ,  and  the 
appeal  that  is  made  to  the  lost  and  the  methods 
that  are  used  to  reach  them  are  in  harmony  with 
this  program  rather  than  with  the  divine  Program. 
This  is  the  tragedy  of  altogether  too  much  of  our 
evangelistic  work  to-day. 

It  is  of  the  utmost  importance,  therefore,  that  we! 
see  these  distinctions  just  outlined,  in  order  that 
we  may  not  bungle  in  this  most  important  of  all 
Christian  service.  While  our  testimony  is  to  be 
given  to  all,  our  efforts  to  bring  acceptance  of  Christ 
are  to  be  put  forth  only  with  those  whom  the  Holy 
Spirit  points  out  to  us  as  being  made  ready  by  his 
work  to  accept  Christ.  That  is,  we  need  to  be  ex- 
ceedingly careful  about  either  going  ahead  of  the 
Spirit  or  falling  behind  his  leadings.  To  urge  a 
person  to  a  surrender  for  which  the  Holy  Spirit 
has  not  been  permitted  to  prepare  him  is  a  grave 
mistake,  and  to  fail  to  bring  a  person  to  a  decision, 
under  the  enabling  of  the  Spirit,  that  he  is  ready 
to  make,  is  an  equally  grievous  blunder.  We  need 
to  be  utterly  under  the  Spirit's  direction  in  this 
work. 

There  is  another  point,  also,  on  which  we  need  to 
be  clear.  If  we  see  no  response  to  our  testimony 
and  no  evidence  of  the  Spirit's  work  after  bearing 


This  Progfram  Will  Reach  the  Lost     105 


't3 


witness  a  few  times  to  a  given  lost  soul,  we  are  not 
to  conclude  that  he  will  never  be  able  to  do  his  work 
in  that  heart  and  that  therefore  we  need  say  no 
more  about  Christ  to  him.  For  we  are  to  bear  our 
testimony  to  all  the  unsaved,  no  matter  hovv^  unre- 
sponsive they  may  seem,  until  our  opportunities  are 
gone,  hoping  that  some  word  may  yet  get  the  heart 
open  for  the  Spirit  to  do  his  work.  We  are  not  to 
try  to  force  a  decision  to  accept  Christ  when  the 
Spirit  has  not  been  permitted  to  give  such  a  vision 
of  him  as  will  produce  a  divinely  wrought  convic- 
tion, but  we  are  not  therefore  to  stop  all  witness- 
ing, for  it  may  be  that  one  more  word  concerning 
our  Lord  will  be  just  the  word  the  Spirit  can  use. 

But  it  is  of  the  greatest  importance  here  also  that 
we  should  be  constantly  under  the  Spirit's  control, 
for  if  we  are  not,  our  continued  witnessing  is  in 
grave  danger  of  degenerating  into  nagging,  and  will 
then  repel  and  drive  men  away  from  Christ  instead 
of  bringing  them  to  him. 

Indeed,  when  the  Spirit  really  begins  his  work  in 
a  heart,  little  or  no  persuasion  is  necessary,  and 
certainly  no  crowding  or  forcing.  There  was  no 
coaxing  on  the  Day  of  Pentecost.  Instead,  those 
with  whom  the  Spirit  was  at  work  came  to  Peter 
and  to  the  rest  and  cried,  "What  shall  we  do?"^ 
And  to-day  in  any  evangelistic  service  where  the 
Spirit  is  powerfully  at  work,  the  lost  come  to  Christ 
without  any  high  pressure  methods  of  any  kind. 
Tricks  played  on  an  audience  and  traps  to  force 

»Acts  2:37. 


106  Every- Member  Evangelism 

the  unsaved  into  decisions  they  do  not  really  make 
are  resorted  to  only  when  man's  methods  are  sub- 
stituted for  the  divine  Program. 

THE  REASON   FOR  THE  DIVINE  PROGRAM 

This  brings  us  to  where  we  can  begin  to  see  more 
clearly  why  the  Lord  gave  us  precisely  the  Pro- 
gram he  did  rather  than  some  other.  Witnessing 
is  the  divinely  appointed  method  of  seeking  for  the 
lost.  Not  for  church-members,  but  for  lost  souls. 
For  this  is  the  07ily  method  by  which  it  is  possible 
to  find  among  the  lost  all  those  who  can  be  brought 
to  respond  to  the  Spirit's  conviction  of  sin.  This 
is  so  because  it  is  only  the  goodness  of  God  in 
Christ  on  the  cross  that  can  lead  to  repentance,  and 
it  is  only  by  witnessing  to  all  concerning  the  cru- 
cified Christ,  that  the  Spirit  is  able  to  quicken  those 
who  are  willing  into  such  a  vision  of  him  as  will 
produce  that  conviction  of  sin  which  alone  can  lead 
to  repentance  toward  God  and  faith  toward  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ.  The  lost  must  be  sought  and 
found  of  the  Holy  Spirit  before  they  can  be  saved, 
and  he  can  find  those  who  are  willing  to  be  saved 
only  through  our  testimony. 

We  can  also  see  why  we  are  commanded  to  take 
our  testimony  to  the  lost,  and  not  to  expect  them  to 
come  after  it.  It  is  only  the  vision  of  a  crucified 
Christ  that  can  bring  men  to  conviction,  and  until 
that  work  is  done  in  the  heart  through  our  testi- 
mony to  Christ,  there  is  no  real  demand  for  what 
the  Church  has  to  offer. 


This  Program  Will  Reach  the  Lost     107 

This  shows  the  folly  of  expecting  the  lost  to 
come  to  the  services  of  the  Church  when  we  have 
done  nothing  to  create  a  demand  for  them,  and 
also  the  folly  of  seeking  to  create  that  demand  by 
any  other  than  the  divine  Program. 

When  all  these  facts  are  taken  in,  we  begin  to 
see  why  it  is  that  the  Lord's  people  must  give  them- 
selves to  prayer  accompanied  by  witnessing,  and  to 
witnessing  saturated  with  prayer ;  and  why  the  Lord 
has  commanded  every  disciple  to  go  everywhere 
bearing  private  testimony  to  Christ,  in  the  power 
of  the  Spirit,  to  all  the  lost  in  their  individual 
worlds ;  and  why  it  is  that  certain  disciples  selected 
by  the  Holy  Spirit  must  give  their  whole  time  both 
to  private  and  to  public  teaching  and  testimony,  and 
to  the  training  of  the  rest  of  the  disciples  in  that 
service  which  alone  can  build  up  the  Church  both 
in  numbers  and  in  spirituahty. 

When  this  program  is  followed,  God  is  then  able, 
and  only  then,  to  work  those  miracles  of  both  cre- 
ating such  a  demand  as  will  bring  the  lost  in  great 
numbers  to  the  services  of  the  Church,  and  of  sup- 
plying that  demand  by  new  life  in  Christ.  This  is 
a  fundamental  reason  for  the  Great  Commission 
Program. 

A  striking  illustration  of  this  Program  at  work 
on  a  small  scale  occurred  in  an  evangelistic  cam- 
paign the  writer  was  conducting  in  a  small  Cana- 
dian city.  A  community  dance  was  put  on  every 
night  for  the  last  two  weeks  of  the  meetings  to 
draw  the  young  people  away.     A  young  lady  was 


108  Every -Member  Evangelism 

under  deep  conviction  of  the  Spirit,  and  in  answer 
to  her  natural  inclinations  was  trying  to  get  away 
from  it.  And  so  each  day  of  the  last  week  she 
made  an  engagement  to  attend  the  dance  that  night, 
and  yet  each  night  found  her  in  the  meeting  with 
her  dance  engagement  broken.  Time  and  again  she 
said  she  did  not  know  why  she  was  at  church,  for 
she  certainly  did  not  want  to  come,  but  she  seemed 
unable  to  stay  away.  Conviction  deepened  until  on 
the  last  night  she  accepted  Christ. 

Now  how  was  this  brought  about?  By  the  pri- 
vate praying  and  personal  testimony  of  two  girl 
friends,  converted  the  first  week  of  the  meetings, 
reaching  its  climax  and  culmination  in  the  public 
testimony  of  the  evangelist's  messages.  By  fol- 
lowing the  Program  of  the  Day  of  Pentecost,  the 
Holy  Spirit  was  able,  through  those  two  young 
women,  to  work  the  miracle  of  creating  such  a 
demand  for  the  things  of  the  Spirit  in  that  girl's 
heart  that,  in  spite  of  her  inclinations  to  the  con- 
trary, she  was  literally  compelled  to  come  to  church. 
And  then  by  following  that  Program  without  let-up, 
as  the  Spirit  led,  he  was  able  to  work  the  consum- 
mating miracle  of  supplying  the  demand  he  had 
been  permitted  to  create,  by  bringing  her  to  the  new 
birth.     When  we  obey,  God  does  the  rest. 

2.     The  Present  Day  Practice  of  the  Program 

It  will  be  both  inspiring  and  confirming  to  note 
how  the  New  Testament  Program  reaches  the  lost, 
even  when  it  is  only  partially  followed,  and  so  we 


This  Proe:ram  Will  Reach  the  Lost       109 


'fc> 


will  give  heed  to  some  of  the  things  the  Lord  is 
doing  through  a  few  of  his  yielded  people. 

IN   A   FEW    METHODIST   CHURCHES 

In  the  literature  of  the  Methodist  Forward  Move- 
ment of  1920  is  the  story  of  a  church  long  without 
revival  in  which  one  hundred  and  forty  teams  of 
four  each  reached  one  hundred  and  fifty-three  for 
Christ  in  sixty  days,  largely  by  personal  work. 

In  a  suburban  New  York  church  that  had  not 
had  a  conversion  for  years,  the  young  people  were 
spurred  to  action  and  went  after  their  chums,  which 
resulted  in  thirty-two  joining  the  church  in  one 
evening. 

In  a  church  in  which  over  four  hundred  mem- 
bers were  sick,  and  in  spite  of  very  bad  weather 
and  almost  impassable  roads,  in  a  six  weeks'  re- 
vival campaign  one  hundred  and  eight  were  con- 
verted through  a  well-organized  campaign  of  per- 
sonal work.  During  four  years  in  that  church  per- 
sonal evangelism  was  much  emphasized,  and  during 
that  time  1,158  came  into  the  church,  974  of  whom 
came  as  a  direct  result  of  personal  evangelism. 

In  another  church  in  which  the  Official  Board 
led  the  way  in  personal  work,  the  membership  was 
increased  from  six  hundred  to  twenty-one  hundred 
in  a  little  more  than  four  years. 

IN   A   PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH 

Somewhere  the  writer  has  seen  the  story  of  a 
Presbyterian  church  that  had  gone  over  a  year 
without  a  conversion.  The  pastor  called  the  Ses- 
sion together  and  offered  to  resiVm. 


110  Every -]\Iember  Evangelism 

The  officials  strongly  objected  to  the  pastor's  pur- 
pose, and  said  they  were  being  edified,  and  there 
was  no  need  of  his  resigning. 

''Edified  for  what?"  asked  the  pastor. 

In  the  conversation  that  followed  the  pastor  fin- 
ally turned  to  the  chairman  of  the  Session  and 
asked,  "Do  you  believe  that  through  you  a  soul  has 
ever  been  saved?" 

"No,"  said  the  official.  And  all  the  rest  of  the 
Board  had  to  give  the  same  answer. 

Then  the  pastor  said,  "Unless  the  Lord  gives  this 
church  souls  in  the  near  future,  I  shall  ask  that 
you  also  resign  as  the  elders  of  it." 

"But  we  are  getting  along  very  well,"  they  said. 

"No,  we  are  not  getting  along  at  all,"  said  the 
pastor. 

And  then  he  got  them  to  their  knees  where  they 
dedicated  themselves  to  thfe  work  of  soul-winning. 

This  was  on  Saturday  night.  On  Monday  morn- 
ing the  chairman  of  that  Session  spoke  to  his  con- 
fidential clerk  and  said,  "How  long  have  you  worked 
for  me.  Bob?" 

"Fifteen  years,"  he  said. 

Then  the  employer  said,  "I  am  an  elder  in  the 
church  you  attend  when  you  go  anywhere.  You 
are  not  a  Christian.  I  know  it  and  have  known  it 
all  the  time,  and  yet  have  never  said  a  word  to  you 
about  it.  But  my  soul  is  on  fire  now,  and  I  want 
that  we  both  get  down  and  give  ourselves  to  Christ. 
I  will  do  it  for  greater  consecration  and  you  for 
salvation." 


This  Program  Will  Reach  the  Lost     lU 

The  young  man  knelt  and  received  Christ 
right  there,  and  that  elder  led  ten  others  of  his 
employees  to  accept  Christ  that  day.  The  other  elders 
were  doing  the  same  thing  in  other  places  of  busi- 
ness that  week,  and  the  next  Sunday  over  thirty 
joined  that  Presbyterian  church  as  a  result  of  that 
work. 

DR.  R.  A.  TORREY's   SUCCESS 

The  Moody  church  of  Chicago  is  known  all  over 
Christendom.  During  the  eight  years  that  Dr.  R. 
A.  Torrey  was  pastor  of  that  church,  more  than 
two  thousand  members  were  received  into  it,  and 
other  thousands  who  had  been  won  to  Christ  in  that 
church  joined  other  churches.  The  secret  of  this, 
and  of  the  continued  great  work  of  that  church, 
lies  in  the  persistent  personal  work  of  the  members. 

During  Dr.  Torrey*s  great  meetings  in  Birming- 
ham, England,  when  nearly  eight  thousand  came  to 
Christ  in  one  month.  Dr.  Torrey  himself  has  said 
that  the  great  results  were  made  possible  because 
of  the  personal  work  that  accompanied  the 
preaching. 

SPURGE0N*S  CHURCH 

We  have  all  marveled  at  the  great  numbers 
brought  to  Christ  under  Spurgeon's  wonderful  min- 
istry, and  the  most  of  us  have  supposed  that  of 
course  it  was  Spurgeon's  preaching.  But  that  was 
only  a  part  of  the  secret.  The  other  part  of  it 
was  the  fact  that  once  a  year,  for  many  years, 
three  thousand  and  more  of  his  members  came  for- 


112  Every -Member  Evangelism 

ward  in  a  church  service,  and,  in  a  most  solemn 
pledge,  took  his  hand  in  token  that  for  another 
year  they  would  together  give  themselves  to  the 
work  of  taking  Christ  to  the  lost. 

The  result  was  that  Spurgeon  never  stood  up  to 
preach  without  looking  into  the  faces  of  scores  of 
unsaved  people  to  whom  his  own  members  had 
been  witnessing  to  Christ  in  their  own  homes,  and 
who  had  had  the  demand  for  salvation  sufficiently 
aroused  to  come  to  the  church  services  to  get  that 
demand  satisfied.  Like  Peter's  sermon  on  the  Day 
of  Pentecost,  Spurgeon's  sermons  were  the  climax 
of  the  witnessing  to  Christ  that  had  preceded,  and 
the  private  witnessing,  reaching  its  climax  in  the 
public  testimony,  bore  a  wonderful  harvest  for  God. 

Who  could  not  preach  in  power  in  an  atmosphere 
created  by  such  a  passion  for  the  lost,  and  who 
could  not  be  a  soul-winning  preacher  with  three 
thousand  Christians  backing  him  with  the  kind  of 
praying  and  personal  work  that  such  a  passion 
produces ! 

A   PITTSBURGH    EXPERIENCE 

Among  the  many  practical  illustrations  of  the 
working  of  this  divine  Program  which  have  oc- 
curred in  the  writer's  ministry,  none  has  ever  been 
more  striking  than  one  which  occurred  in  Pitts- 
burgh, Pennsylvania,  a  few  years  ago. 

For  many  weeks  he  had  been  stated  supply  of  a 
church  in  the  city.  Some  things  had  been  said 
about  the  preaching  to  a  young  Scotchman  by  one 


This  Program  Will  Reach  the  Lost     113 

of  the  members  that  had  made  him  determine  to 
come  and  hear  the  preacher.  The  young  man  was 
under  conviction  of  sin,  but  his  friend  could  not 
get  him  over  the  line. 

One  Sunday  night  in  midsummer  he  was  in  the 
service — the  only  one  he  was  able  to  attend  that 
summer.  The  sermon  announced  required  the  use 
of  the  blackboard.  After  the  people  were  all  in 
and  the  service  had  begun,  a  storm  broke,  accom- 
panied by  much  lightning.  Every  time  the  light- 
ning flashed  near  by  the  electric  lights  grew  dim 
and  once  or  twice  went  out  for  a  moment. 

Finally,  just  as  the  writer  was  ready  to  announce 
the  text,  the  lights  went  out  permanently,  and  no 
light  could  be  provided  except  a  couple  of  candles. 
A  blackboard  sermon  was  out  of  the  question.  So 
while  the  congregation  sang  and  the  candles  were 
being  placed,  the  writer  sought  the  Lord  for  text 
and  message,  and  the  Holy  Spirit  gav€  him  Pilate's 
question,  "What  shall  I  do  then  with  Jesus  who 
is  called  Christ?^  The  text  was  chosen  with  no 
knowledge  of  the  young  Scotchman  present,  nor 
that  any  one  under  conviction  was  in  the  audience. 

During  the  progress  of  the  message  conviction 
was  deepened,  questions  were  answered,  perplex- 
ities were  cleared  up,  until,  before  the  message  was 
ended,  that  young  man  lifted  his  heart  and  silently 
accepted  Christ,  witnessing  to  it  with  great  joy  after 
the  service.  The  personal  work  of  his  friend  needed 
just  the  message  of  that  service  to  bring  conviction 


>Matt.  27:22. 
9 


114  Every -Member  Evangelism 

of  sin  to  the  climax  of  decision,  and  the  Lord  put 
the  lights  out  in  order  to  bring  it  about ! 

"God  moves  in  a  mysterious  way, 
His  wonders  to  perform; 
He  plants   His   footsteps  on   the   sea, 
And  rides  upon  the  storm!" 


A   SEATTLE   CHURCH 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  illustrations  of  the 
practical  working  and  certain  fruitage  of  the  divine 
Program  is  in  the  history  of  the  First  Presbyterian 
church  in  Seattle,  Washington,  Dr.  Mark  A.  Mat- 
thews, pastor. 

The  city  is  divided  into  thirty-two  districts,  every 
district  thoroughly  officered  for  the  purpose  of  hav- 
ing the  work  systematically  done. 

Among  the  obligations  that  the  members  take 
when  they  come  into  the  church  is  the  vow  that 
they  will  do  all  they  can  to  bring  others  to  Christ, 
and  into  the  church. 

And  this  work  is  seriously  undertaken.  Not  only 
are  the  members  constantly  seeking  the  lost  who 
live  in  Seattle,  but  when  a  new  family  moves  into 
any  section  of  the  city,  within  a  short  time  some 
member  of  that  church  is  in  the  home  giving  them 
cordial  welcome  to  their  services,  and  opening  the 
way  for  further  personal  work  if  they  are  not 
Christians. 

The  result  is  that  at  the  beginning  of  1920  there 
were  about  seven  thousand  members  in  that  church, 
854  of  them — a  good-sized  church  in  itself — having 


This  Program  Will  Reach  the  Lost     115 

entered  the  membership  during  1919,  of  whom  545 
came  on  confession  of  faith. 

Is  there  any  reason  why  any  church  anywhere 
should  not  be  reaping  a  similar  harvest?  None 
whatever  except  that  the  harvesters  are  not  out  in 
the  harvest  field  at  work.  And  this  is  the  crime  of 
the  professing  church  to-day.  While  we  are  beg- 
ging the  Lord  to  send  the  sheaves  in  to  be  gathered, 
a  ripened  harvest  is  going  to  eternal  waste  because 
the  laborers  are  not  going  out  into  the  field  to 
gather  it  in. 

There  had  just  been  a  fearful  storm  that  had 
utterly  ruined  a  splendid  crop  of  grain.  Other 
crops  all  about  had  been  gathered  before  the  storm 
struck,  but  this  one  could  not  be  harvested  for  lack 
of  help. 

The  owner  of  the  crop  stood  at  the  fence,  after 
the  storm  had  passed,  looking  at  his  ruined  harvest, 
his  face  a  picture  of  sadness  and  dejection. 

A  stranger 'coming  along  the  road  came  up  to  the 
fence  and  stood  in  silence  for  a  moment  beside  the 
farmer. 

Then  he  said,  "It's  a  pretty  sad  sight,  isn't  it?" 

The  owner  said,  "You  would  think  it  was  sad 
if  it  was  your  field." 

"Why  didn't  you  harvest  it  before  the  storm 
came?"  asked  the  stranger. 

"Because  I  couldn't  get  any  harvesters,"  was  his 
sad  reply,  as  he  turned  on  his  heel  and  went  to  the 
house. 


116  Every -Member  Evangelism 

WHERE  ARE   THE  LORD's    HARVESTERS? 

If  you  who  read  these  pages  are  a  professed  fol- 
lower of  Christ,  and  yet  you  are  not  out  in  the 
harvest  field  laboring  to  gather  the  harvest  before 
the  storm  comes,  the  words  of  the  late  Charles  M. 
Alexander,  the  great  song  leader,  are  for  you.  He 
said,  "Anybody  who  is  not  doing  personal  work 
has  sin  in  his  life.  I  don't  care  who  you  are — 
preacher,  teacher,  mother,  father — if  you  are  not 
leading  definite  people  to  a  definite  Saviour  at  a 
definite  time,  or  trying  hard  to  do  so,  you  have 
sin  in  your  Hfe.'* 

If  this  is  true — and  it  certainly  is,  for  disobedi- 
ence to  the  Great  Commission  is  sin — what  a  weight 
of  guilt  is  resting  on  a  multitude  of  Christians  in 
the  Church  to-day ! 

The  preceding  illustrations  of  what  happens  when 
a  church  even  approximates  obedience  to  the  Great 
Commission  are  a  terrible  condemnation  of  those 
guilty  Christians  in 'every  church  who  are  content  to 
live  within  daily  reach  of  multitudes  of  lost  men  and 
women  without  ever  making  a  direct  personal  effort 
to  rescue  them.  Oh,  that  the  Church  might  be  so 
aroused  that  she  would  literally  follow  the  Pro- 
gram of  the  risen  Lord  according  to  the  pattern  of 
the  Day  of  Pentecost!  Then  would  we  see  the 
world-wide  revival  that  many  have  so  long  been 
praying  for.  Then  would  the  harvest  be  gathered 
before  the  storm  breaks  and  it  is  eternally  too  late. 

"The  time  will  come,"  said  a  prominent  minister 
to  his  morning  congregation  in  which  were  many 


This  Prqe^ram  Will  Reach  the  Lost     117 


'& 


well-known  manufacturers,  ''when  all  that  will  be 
left  in  the  created  universe  will  be  two  things:  on 
the  one  side,  a  heap  of  ashes ;  on  the  other,  a  myriad 
million  of  undying  souls  saved  or  lost.  In  the  ash 
heap  will  be  all  your  machines,  your  gold  and  your 
silver,  your  stocks  and  your  bonds,  your  shops  and 
your  lands.  In  the  midst  of  the  myriad  milHon 
souls  will  be  the  men  and  women  who  have  toiled 
for  you.  What  will  you  have  to  say  to  them  before 
the  Great  White  Throne?" 

What  will  you  who  read  these  lines  have  to  say 
to  the  lost  you  might  have  won  to  Christ? 

We  close  this  chapter  as  it  was  begun.  The 
cross  must  come  off  from  our  church  spires,  our 
necklaces,  and  our  watch  chains  and  get  into  our 
lives.  We  must  come  to  an  end  of  our  selfish 
unwillingness  to  dedicate  ourselves  to  soul-winning, 
and  accept  the  brand  marks  of  the  cross  in  our 
lives  that  we  may  bear  them  about  with  us  wher- 
ever we  go.  We  must  put  ourselves  where  we  can 
preach  a  crucified  Saviour  by  daily  living  the  cru- 
cified life.  Then  will  the  fragrance  of  our  Hves 
win  the  lost  to  listen  to  our  testimony  to  him  who 
is  the  chiefest  among  ten  thousand  and  the  one  alto- 
gether lovely. 

Dr.  George  W.  Truett,  of  Dallas,  Texas,  tells 
what  the  brand  marks  of  the  cross  did  for  those  who 
beheld  them  on  an  occasion  when  he  was  raising 
the  money  to  dedicate  a  church  building. 

The  amount  to  be  raised  was  $6,500.  After  what 
he  calls  the  slowest,  most  reluctant,  most  Christ- 


118  Every -Member  Evangelism 

shaming  effort  to  raise  money  he  ever  witnessed, 
they  stopped  at  three  thousand  dollars. 

After  a  long  pause,  Dr.  Truett  said,  "What  do 
you  expect  of  me?  I  am  your  guest.  I  do  not 
happen  to  have  the  other  $3,500.  What  do  you 
expect  of  me?'* 

Then  there  arose  a  little  woman  back  in  the  audi- 
ence, plainly  clad.  "There  was  a  surpassing  pathos 
in  her  voice,'*  says  Dr.  Truett,  **as  looking  past  me 
to  the  young  man  at  the  desk  who  was  taking  the 
names — ^her  husband — she  said,  'Charley,  I  have 
wondered  if  you  would  be  willing  for  us  to  give  our 
little  cottage,  just  out  of  debt.  We  were  offered 
$3,500  in  cash  for  it  yesterday.  We  were  told  we 
could  get  it  at  the  bank  any  time  in  ten  days,  if  we 
chose  to  make  the  trade.  Charley,  I  have  won- 
dered if  you  would  be  willing  for  us  to  give  our 
little  house  to  Christ  that  his  house  may  be  free. 
When  we  remember,  Charley,  that  Christ  gave  his 
life  for  us,  I  wonder  if  we  ought  not  to  give  this 
little  house  to  him.* 

"The  fine  fellow  responded  in  the  same  high  spirit 
with  a  sob  in  his  voice,  saying:  *J^^^i^»  dear,  I 
was  thinking  of  the  same  thing.*  Then  looking  up 
at  me  with  his  face  covered  with  tears,  he  said, 
'We  will  give  $3,500.* 

"Then  there  followed  a  scene  beggaring  all  de- 
scription. Silence  reigned  for  a  minute,  and  then 
men  sobbed  aloud,  and  gentle  women  and  men 
standing  around  the  walls,  who  a  dozen  minutes 
before  had  shut  their  lips  with  scorn  and  contempt 


This  Prosrram  Will  Reach  the  Lost     119 


for  a  church  halting  and  defeated,  sobbed  aloud, 
and  almost  in  a  moment  provided  the  $3,500." 

That  was  wonderful  enough  to  have  stopped 
right  there,  but  the  most  wonderful  part  of  the 
whole  scene  followed  after  the  money  was  raised. 
For  ^'without  invitation,'*  continues  Dr.  Truett, 
"there  came  down  every  aisle  to  where  I  stood  men 
and  women,  saying,  *Sir,  where  is  the  Saviour,  and 
how  can  we  find  him  ?' " 

The  Christ  of  the  cross  had  been  lifted  up  in  two 
crucified  lives,  and  he  had  drawn  men  unto  him- 
self as  he  had  promised. 


Part  III 
THE  DIVINE  POWER 


INTRODUCTORY 

IN  the  previous  pages  we  have  had  a  glimpse  of 
the  desperate  condition  of  an  indifferent  Church 
and  the  appalling  need  of  a  lost  world. 

We  have  found  also  that  to  follow  the  Program 
which  the  Lord  laid  out  for  his  people  is  the  only 
possible  method  of  correcting  the  growing  ills  in 
the  Church  and  of  meeting  the  needs  of  the  lost 
around  us. 

But  this  method  is  not  being  followed,  in  spite 
of  the  fact  that  it  is  simplicity  itself,  and  in  spite 
of  the  most  earnest  efforts  of  many  godly  ministers 
to  get  their  churches  to  do  so.  Churches  every- 
where will  follow  other  programs  with  enthusiasm, 
but  not  this  one.    What  is  the  reason? 

The  answer  is  not  far  to  find.  This  Program  is 
altogether  divine,  and  so  it  is  impossible  to  carry 
it  out  except  by  divine  power.  Those  who  attempt 
to  work  by  this  method  are  shut  up  to  the  power 
from  on  high  in  order  to  get  spiritual  results.  Noth- 
ing else  will  bring  such  results,  and  many  are  un- 
willing to  pay  the  price  for  that  power.  It  is  too 
high  for  them,  for  it  is  nothing  short  of  complete 
death  to  all  we  are  and  have. 

120 


Introductory  121 

A  man  had  given  himself  to  Christ  for  Africa, 
A  friend  said  to  him,  "Isn't  it  dangerous  to  go 
so  far  away  from  civihzation,  where  you  will  have 
no  help  and  no  medicine  in  sickness?  Aren't  you 
afraid  you'll  die?'* 

"I  died  when  I  decided  to  go,"  said  the  mis- 
sionary. 

In  precisely  the  same  way  must  every  Christian 
die  when  he  decides  to  go  into  his  own  personal 
world — his  missionary  field — to  take  Christ  to  the 
lost.  And  the  present  unspiritual,  worldly,  pleasure- 
loving  atmosphere  of  the  Church  makes  this  price 
seem  impossible. 

THE    REASON    FOR    SUBSTITUTE   PROGRAMS 

This  is  why  we  are  so  busy  making  and  follow- 
ing human  programs.  For  to  follow  the  divine 
Program  requires  us  to  pay  a  price  that  even  many 
leaders  in  the  Church  seem  unwilling  to  pay.  And 
so  we  busy  ourselves  with  programs  of  civilization, 
education,  social  service,  and  a  dozen  other  by- 
products of  evangelism,  and  let  straight-out  per- 
sonal work  for  lost  souls  go,  never  seeming  to 
realize  that  when  we  stop  evangelizing  the  by-prod- 
ucts will  disappear  in  spite  of  all  we  can  do  to 
continue  them. 

Substitute  programs  are  no  new  thing.  Satan 
presented  no  less  than  three  different  ones  to  Christ 
in  the  wilderness  temptation,  by  at  least  one  of 
which  he  guaranteed  world-conquest.  And  substi- 
tute programs  accompanied  by  the  same  guaranty 


122  Every -Member  Evangelism 

are  being  presented  to  the  Church  to-day.  Shall 
we  fall  where  our  Lord  stood?  He  turned  from 
all  of  them  and  went  to  the  cross !  *'He  saved 
others;  himself  he  cannot  save."^  Shall  we  save 
ourselves  from  the  cross?  Then  others  we  cannot 
save ! 

NOT  PROGRAMS  BUT  POWER 

It  is  not  programs  we  lack,  it  is  power!  The 
Lord  has  given  us  our  Program,  and  it  is  an  insult 
to  him  to  attempt  to  make  any  other.  We  have 
nothing  to  do  but  to  follow  it. 

In  the  previous  pages  we  have  sought  to  trace  our 
trouble  back  step  by  step  in  the  hope  of  finally 
reaching  the  root  difficulty.  We  are  now  at  the 
very  heart  of  it.  We  are  not  following  the  Lord's 
Program,  and  this  is  the  reason  for  our  failure. 
We  are  not  possessed  by  the  power  from  on  high, 
and  this  is  the  reason  we  are  not  following  the  Pro- 
gram. And  we  are  not  willing  to  go  to  the  cross, 
and  this  is  the  reason  we  are  not  possessed  by  the 
power  from  on  high. 

In  many  discussions  of  personal  evangelism  the 
heart  of  the  matter  seems  to  be  left  out.  The  im- 
pression is  too  often  left  that  the  Lord's  command 
to  go  after  the  lost  ought  to  be  enough  for  any 
Christian.  But  it  is  not  enoiigh!  The  Great  Com- 
mission is  sufficient  authority,  but  it  is  not  sufficient 
motive.  It  is  not  the  imperative  of  an  external 
command  that  sends  us  after  the  lost,  it  is  the  im- 

»Matt.    27:42. 


Introductory  123 

pulse  of  an  indwelling  Presence.  We  may  be  com- 
manded forever  to  take  the  Gospel  to  the  lost  and 
it  will  never  move  us,  but  when  we  are  fully  pos- 
sessed and  controlled  by  him  whose  life  it  was  to 
seek  and  to  save  the  lost,  we  shall  go,  command 
or  no  command.  Back  of  all  successful  work  for 
the  lost  is  an  inward  spiritual  impulse;  and  back 
of  the  impulse  is  the  Holy  Spirit  who  reproduces 
Christ  in  us ;  and  the  brand  mark  of  it  all  is  the  y 
cross,  the  living  experience  of  which  must  both 
enter  and  control  the  life  before  we  are  fit  for 
service. 

We  shall  therefore  consider  the  divine  motive 
power  behind  obedience  to  the  Great  Commission. 
It  is  Christ  himself,  empowering  us  to  live  by  his 
indwelling  life,  and  impelling  us  to  witness  by  his 
overflowing  love.  As  we  seek  the  significance  of 
his  indwelling  life  working  in  us,  both  the  mean- 
ing of  the  cross  and  the  method  of  taking  it  into 
our  personal  experience  will  unfold  before  us.  Then 
as  we  study  the  secret  of  his  saving  love  flowing 
through  us,  the  impelling  power  of  his  risen  life  in 
our  lives,  and  the  compelling  power  of  his  redeem- 
ing love  over  the  lost  will  break  upon  our  vision. 


CHAPTER  I 
THE  EMPOWERING  LIFE  OF  CHRIST 

THE  divine  power  is  the  life  of  Christ,  cru- 
cified and  risen  again,  dwelling  in  us.  The 
beginning  of  this  indwelling  was  what  the  disciples 
were  commanded  to  wait  for  when  Christ  went 
away,  and  what  they  received  on  the  day  of  Pente- 
cost. 

This  does  not  mean  that  they  were  not  born  again 
until  Pentecost,  for  there  is  plenty  of  evidence  that 
they  were,  but  that  the  Holy  Spirit  began  his  offi- 
cial mission  on  earth  on  that  day.  That  official 
mission  is  the  baptism  of  all  true  disciples  into  that 
one  body  through  which  Christ  continues  his  work 
of  seeking  the  lost,  being  not  only  the  head  direct- 
ing the  work,  but  also  the  power  by  which  the 
work  is  to  be  done ;  the  directing  and  empowering 
being  actualized  within  the  Church  by  the  Holy 
Spirit.  ^ 

The  disciples  were  therefore  commanded  to  tarry 
until  the  Holy  Spirit  came  to  begin  his  mission  of 
actualizing  within  them  the  indwelling  Christ,  and 
told  that  then,  and  not  before,  they  would  become 
effective  witnesses  unto  him.  They  must  be  pos- 
sessed by  the  divine  power  before  they  would  be 
enabled  to  obey  the  divine  command  and  follow  the  y 
124 


The  Empowering  Life  of  Christ         125 

divine  pattern.  Human  mechanics  are  of  no  avail 
here;  it  takes  divine  dynamics. 

And*  this  is  true  to  this  hour.  The  Lord's  people 
can  no  more  obey  the  divine  command  until  they 
have  become  possessed  by  the  divine  power  to-day, 
than  they  could  in  the  beginning. 

Now  the  only  way  to  become  possessed  by  the 
divine  power  is  to  come  under  the  complete  and 
constant  control  of  the  indweUing  divine  life,  and 
this  is  impossible  without  such  a  living  experience 
of  the  cross  that  self  will  cease  its  activity  and 
the  life  of  Christ  will  be  enthroned  and  put  into 
active  command. 

In  a  very  simple  and  practical  way,  therefore, 
we  shall  seek  to  find  what  it  means  to  be  crucified 
with  Christ,  and  also  the  method  of  receiving  the 
cross  into  our  experience. 

I.     The  Meaning  of  the  Crucified  Life 

Pride  is  the  very  essence  of  the  natural  man.  It 
is  seen  in  the  sinner  in  his  refusal  to  surrender,  and 
in  the  Christian  in  his  failure  to  keep  surrendered. 
Self  must  keep  doing  something.  To  be  compelled 
to  cease  all  activity  is  the  keenest  pain  to  the  flesh, 
because  pride  is  cut  to  the  heart.  To  be  consid- 
ered incapable — so  incapable  that  nothing  self  can 
do  is  acceptable  to  God — this  is  intolerable  beyond 
expression. 

This  gives  us  a  clue  to  the  meaning  of  the  cross 
in  experience.  Absolute  surrender  to  the  will  of 
God  puts  self  out  of  activity ;  it  consigns  self  to  the 


126  Every-Member  Evangelism 

cross  where  all  its  doing  will  cease.     To  do  this  is 
to  enter  the  crucified  life. 

Now,  to  apply  this  to  our  obedience  to  the  Great 
Commission,  in  order  to  enter  the  crucified  life  we 
must  first  see  and  acknowledge  that — 


(^ 


We  are  Utterly  Unable  to  Obey 


We  are  perfectly  helpless — utterly  strengthless, 
and  therefore  totally  incapable  of  obeying  the  very 
least  of  the  Lord's  commands,  and  we  certainly  have 
no  abiHty  to  obey  this  greatest  of  all  his  commands. 

( 1 )     We  are  unable  because  we  are  nothing. 

Many  of  us  think  that  we  are  at  least  a  little 
something,  but  as  long  as  we  think  so  we  are  not  in 
the  place  of  power  for  service.  We  are  nothing, 
and  we  have  nothing  to  exhibit  to  the  world.  And 
even  if  we  had,  the  world  would  not  be  interested 
in  seeing  it,  for  they  are  saying,  not,  "Show  us  what 
you  have,"  but,  "Show  us  the  Father,  and  it  suf- 
ficeth  us."^ 

Now  if,  to  satisfy  the  heart  yearning  of  a 
dying  world,  we  busy  ourselves  in  showing  them 
our  equipment,  our  wealth,  our  institutions,  our 
programs,  our  creeds,  our  denominations,  instead 
of  showing  them  the  Father  through  the  indwell- 
ing Christ,  it  will  be  because  our  pride  and  self- 
sufficiency  have  not  yet  been  swallowed  up  in  utter 
abandonment  to  him  who  is  our  all. 

We  must  be  so  completely  hidden  away  in  Christ 
that  the  world  will  no  longer  see  us,  but  the  Christ 

»John  14:8. 


The  Empowering  Life  of  Christ         127 

who  liveth  in  us.  How  can  we  approach  men  with 
a  divine  message  when  the  human  is  all  they  can 
see  in  us?  Like  the  shoe  salesman  who  always 
wore  the  same  goods  that  he  sold  and  always  ex- 
hibited them  to  all  to  whom  he  tried  to  sell,  so  we 
must  always  exhibit  Christ  to  those  to  whom  we 
testify  of  Christ;  and  this  we  can  never  do  until 
we  get  to  the  place  where  we  are  willing  to  acknowl- 
edge that  we  are  nothing  and  he  is  all.  He  must 
actually  be  our  all  in  our  daily  conscious  experience, 
or  we  can  never  show  a  dying  world  how  sufficient 
he  is  for  all  their  need.  We  must  be  able  to  show 
the  goods  we  advertise. 

This  we  not  only  can  do  but  will  do  from  the 
moment  we  so  yield  that  Christ  can  really  live  his 
life  in  us  and  thus  become  our  character  in  daily 
living,  and  our  power  in  daily  service.  This  is  the 
life  **hid  with  Christ  in  God/'  This  is  the  life  in 
which  we  are  literally  nothing  and  he  is  all.  This 
is  the  life  through  which  the  world  can  see  him 
who  reveals  the  Father. 

(2)  We  are  unable  to  obey  because  we  can  do 
nothing. 

This  is  a  hard  lesson  to  learn.  It  is  so  hard 
that  many  never  learn  it.  Even  those  who  are  very 
sure  they  could  never  do  personal  soul-winning 
work  with  the  lost  are  just  as  sure  there  are  some 
things  they  can  do. 

Many  Christians  have  the  false  notion  that  if  we 
will  only  do  all  we  can,  then  the  Lord  will  come  in 
and  add  his  strength  to  ours;  but  that  we  cannot 


128  Every -Member  Evangelism 

expect  him  to  do  so  until  we  have  done  all  we  can. 
Spiritual  empowering  to  them  is  his  great  strength 
added  to  our  little  strength.  Indeed,  there  are 
many  who  seem  to  think  that  the  characteristic  dif- 
ference between  the  lost  and  the  saved  is  that  the 
saved  have  accepted  the  help  of  the  Lord  which 
the  lost  have  rejected. 

But  the  difference  is  vital.  That  is,  it  is  the  dif- 
ference between  life  and  death.  Christian  living  is 
not  our  living  with  Christ's  help,  it  is  Christ  living 
his  life  in  us.  Therefore  that  portion  of  our  lives 
that  is  not  of  his  living  is  not  Christian  living ;  and 
that  part  of  our  service  that  is  not  of  his  doing  is 
not  Christian  service;  for  all  such  life  and  service 
have  but  a  human  and  natural  source,  and  Christian 
life  and  service  have  a  superhuman  and  spiritual 
source. 

This  was  precisely  what  Christ  meant  when  he 
said,  "Apart  from  me  ye  can  do  nothing."^  And 
Paul  said  the  same  thing  from  the  opposite  angle 
in  the  words,  "I  can  do  all  things  through  Christ 
which  strengtheneth  me."^  And  in  another  place 
he  explains  how  he  can  do  all  things  through  Christ 
when  he  says,  'T  live ;  yet  not  I,  but  Christ  liveth 
in  me:  and  the  life  which  I  now  live  in  the  flesh  I 
live  by  the  faith  of  the  Son  of  God."^  That  is, 
Christ  lived  his  own  hfe  in  and  through  Paul,  and 
this  was  made  possible  through  Paul's  faith. 

»John    15:5    (Gr.).     'Phil.    4:13.     »GaI.    2:20, 


The  Empowering  Life  of  Christ         129 

LIVING  BY  FAITH,   NOT  WORKS 

Think  of  what  faith  is  and  this  will  be  plain. 
Faith  is  surrender  to  some  one  else  to  do  for  us 
what  we  cannot  possibly  do  for  ourselves.  What 
we  do  for  ourselves  is  all  of  works  and  not  of 
faith.  What  we  surrender  to  some  one  else  to  do 
for  us  is  all  of  faith  and  not  of  works. 

Now  how  much  of  his  life  did  Paul  live,  and  how 
much  did  Christ  live?  Did  Paul  do  his  part  and 
then  let  Christ  make  up  what  he  could  not  do? 
Was  Christ  Paul's  helper,  or  was  he  Paul's  life? 
When  Paul  said,  *To  me  to  live  is  Christ/'^  did  he 
mean,  "To  me  to  live  is  to  be  helped  to  live  by 
Christ"? 

"The  just  shall  live  by  faith''' ;  "Without  faith  it 
is  impossible  to  please  him'";  ^Whatsoever  is  not 
of  faith  is  sin"*;  said  Paul;  and  thus  recognizing 
that  faith  and  works  cannot  be  mixed  in  the  con- 
tinuance of  the  Christian  life  any  more  than  they 
can  in  the  beginning  of  it,  he  turned  it  all  over  so 
completely  to  Christ  that  he  himself  no  longer  lived 
it,  but  Christ  lived  his  Hfe  in  him  in  response  to 
Paul's  faith. 

This  is  living  the  Christian  life.  Nothing  else  is. 
For  any  life  that  is  not  of  faith  is  of  works,  and  is 
therefore  sin,  and  a  life  of  sin  is  not  Christian  liv- 
ing. A  person  may  be  a  Christian  and  still  be 
attempting  to  live  by  works;  but  he  cannot  do  any 
real  Christian  Hving  except  by  faith. 

And  yet  there  are  many  Christians  who  are  ready 

iPhil.  1:21.       «Gal.  3:11.       «Heb.  11:6.       ^Rom.  14:23. 
10 


130  Every -Member  Evangelism 

to  say  in  prayer-meeting,  with  becoming  modesty, 
so  they  think,  *1  am  still  striving  to  serve  the  Lord 
in  my  poor,  weak  way."  But  the  fact  is,  the  Lord 
never  asked  us  to  serve  him  in  our  poor,  weak 
way,  and  he  is  not  the  least  pleased  with  that  kind 
of  service.  He  has  asked  us  to  surrender  to  him, 
and  let  him  serve  himself  through  us  in  his  strong 
and  mighty  way.  So  long  as  we  are  strong  enough 
to  be  even  weak  we  are  too  strong  for  him.  It  is 
only  when  we  become  utterly  strengthless  that  his 
strength  becomes  available.  "For  when  I  am  weak 
[utterly  strengthless,  in  the  Greek],  then  am  I 
strong,"^  says  Paul. 

The  conclusion  of  all  this  is  that  no  matter  what 
our  natural  endowments  and  training  may  be,  obedi- 
ence to  the  Great  Commission  is  impossible  to  all 
except  those  who  realize  that  they  can  do  nothing. 

(3)  We  are  unable  to  obey  because  we  can  give 
nothing. 

This  is  especially  the  place  where  active  and 
trained  workers  fail.  What  are  all  their  training 
and  experience  for  if  not  to  equip  them  to  give 
something  to  those  whom  they  seek  to  serve  in  the 
Master's  name?  What  is  all  their  knowledge  for 
if  not  to  give  to  others?  Why  the  natural  endow- 
ments the  Lord  gave  them  if  not  to  make  their 
giving  to  others  more  effective? 

You  recall  that  Christ  imagined  a  man  who  had 
a  friend  come  to  see  him,  arriving  at  midnight,  and 
he  had  nothing  to  set  before  him.     So  empty  was 

»2  Cor.   12:10. 


The  Empowering  Life  of  Christ         131 

he  of  everything  that  he  had  to  go  to  some  one 
else  for  bread  to  set  before  his  friend/ 

By  that  parable  the  Lord  intends  us  to  under- 
stand that  we  too  have  nothing  to  set  before  a 
famishing  world,  and  if  we  set  anything  before 
them  at  all,  we  must  go  outside  ourselves  and  our 
own  resources  to  get  it;  and  if  we  go  to  him  who 
has  the  bread  of  life  to  give,  we  can  get  as  many 
loaves  as  we  need. 

THE   REASON    MANY   FAIL 

Many  a  Sunday-school  teacher  will  work  hard  on 
a  lesson  until  the  preparation  is  thorough  and  splen- 
did, and  then  go  before  the  class  with  the  feeling, 
"I  certainly  have  something  to  give  the  class  to-day. 
This  is  a  great  lesson,  and  I  am  going  to  have  a 
great  time  giving  them  what  I  have  dug  out  of  it." 
And  then  how  many  times  they  will  find  no  re- 
sponse from  the  class,  and  wonder  why  all  the 
thorough  preparation  seems  to  go  for  nothing. 

And  many  a  preacher  will  go  before  the  people 
with  the  calm  assurance  that  he  has  something 
worth  while  to  give  them  now,  whether  he  ever 
had  before  or  not,  and  then  find  himself  pumping 
and  perspiring  before  an  audience  that  he  is  con- 
scious is  getting  nothing.  And  he  recalls  more  than 
one  service  when,  because  of  unusual  demands  on 
his  time,  he  has  gone  before  them  with  nothing  but  a 
text,  and  to  his  own  joy  and  the  great  refreshing 


i^uke  11:5-8. 


132  Every -Member  Evangelism 

of  his  people,  he  has  found  himself  the  channel  of 
a  message  from  the  very  throne. 

And  many  a  personal  worker  will  prepare  very 
thoroughly  for  an  interview  with  some  one  he  is 
seeking  to  lead  to  Christ,  and  then  go  to  him  with 
the  feeling  that  what  he  has  to  give  him  ought  cer- 
tainly to  bring  him  this  time,  and  then  be  compelled 
to  leave  with  the  feeling  that  the  one  he  is  after 
is  farther  away  from  Christ  than  he  was  before  the 
interview. 

What  does  all  this  mean?  Is  it  wrong  to  make 
thorough  preparation?  Should  we  throw  all  prep- 
aration to  the  winds  and  simply  open  our  mouths 
and  expect  the  Lord  to  fill  them? 

Most  emphatically,  no!  It  is  not  wrong  to  make 
the  most  thorough  preparation  possible.  The  fatal 
mistake  comes  in  thinking  that  our  preparation  has 
given  us  something  of  our  own  which  we  can  in  turn 
give  to  others.  It  is  pride  of  equipment  that  causes 
our  defeat.  And  we  shall  fail  every  time  we  put 
confidence  in  our  preparation,  for  then  our  trust 
is  not  in  God.  The  most  splendid  ability  and  the 
most  elaborate  equipment  are  but  the  tray  on  which 
to  serve  the  bread  of  life,  and  if  we  put  confidence 
in  the  tray  instead  of  in  him  who  alone  can  put  the 
bread  on  it,  we  are  defeated  before  we  start  our 
serving.  We  have  nothing,  and  the  sooner  we  learn 
it,  the  sooner  we  shall  come  to  depend  utterly  on 
him  who  alone  has  to  give  what  this  old  hungry  and 
starving  world  needs.  If,  after  we  have  made  our 
utmost  preparation,  we  go  to  God  and  tell  him  the 


The  Empowering  Life  of  Christ         133 

tray  is  ready,  and  then  ask  him  to  put  the  bread  of 
life  on  it  that  we  may  serve  it,  we  will  then  be 
where  the  Lord  can  use  our  preparation  to  his  own 
glory. 

It  is  precisely  at  this  point  that  many  workers, 
and  all  the  shirkers,  fail.  The  ever-present  and 
powerful  temptation  of  the  workers  is  to  depend 
on  endowment,  preparation,  and  equipment,  thereby 
putting  all  their  splendid  capacities  directly  in  God's 
way.  And  it  is  the  constant  temptation  of  the 
shirkers  to  imagine  that  none  can  become  soul-win- 
ners except  those  who  have  an  ability,  experience, 
and  preparation  that  they  themselves  do  not  possess, 
and  therefore  they  are  excused.  But  the  fact  is 
that  neither  the  great  capacity  of  the  one  nor  the 
limited  capacity  of  the  other  is  anything  to  God 
except  a  vehicle  on  which  to  convey  the  bread  of 
life  to  the  famishing.  That  man  of  very  limited 
capacity  had  it  right  when  he  said  in  his  prayer,  **0 
Lord,  thou  knowest  my  capacity  is  very  small  and 
I  can't  hold  much,  but.  Lord,  I  can  overflow  a 
great  deal." 

WHAT  THE  CROSS  IS   FOR 

We  can  now  begin  to  see  what  the  cross  is  for. 
We  are  nothing,  we  can  do  nothing,  and  we  can  give 
nothing — not  from  the  moment  when  we  consent 
to  surrender  and  become  helpless  before  God,  but 
all  the  time,  whether  we  realize  and  acknowledge  it 
or  not.  Imagining  that  we  are  something,  and  can 
do  and  give  something  of  spiritual  value,  can  never 


134  Every -Member  Evangelism 

make  these  things  facts.  They  are  not  now,  they 
never  have  been,  and  they  never  will  be  facts.  The 
only  part  of  us  that  is  not  utterly  helpless  is  the 
self-life,  and  that  is  very  powerful  and  active.  And 
when  there  is  prospect  of  its  activity  being  ended, 
it  seeks  to  avoid  it  by  becoming  very  kind-hearted, 
benevolent,  generous,  and  even  religious;  but  it  is 
utterly  incapable  of  doing  anything  spiritual,  and 
therefore  it  can  do  nothing  but  get  in  God's  way  so 
long  as  it  is  allowed  the  sHghtest  activity. 

And  so  the  cross  is  for  that  life  that  is  something. 
It  must  be  reckoned  as  on  the  cross,  so  that  Christ 
can  make  its  activity  to  end.  We  are  nothing,  and 
when  we  come  to  a  complete  end  of  all  our  doing, 
then  the  cross  has  begun  to  operate  in  our  lives. 

We  surely  cannot  have  missed  the  illustration  of 
this  that  Christ  gave  us  in  his  life.  As  a  man  filled 
with  the  Holy  Spirit  he  was  constantly  emphasizing 
his  utter  dependence  on  the  Father.  Whatever  he 
was  he  received  from  God,  and  the  words  that  he 
spoke  and  the  works  that  he  wrought  all  came  from 
the  Father.  He  was  literally  Hving  the  crucified 
life,  because  of  which  the  Father  was  his  constant 
enabling. 

The  conclusion  is  that  we  are  utterly  unable  to 
obey  the  Great  Commission.  This  must  be  willingly 
realized  and  acknowledged  before  we  can  see  the 
other  side  of  this  great  truth,  which  is, 

2.     Christ  is  Perfectly  Able  to  Obey 

No  one  would  think  of  denying  or  even  doubting 


The  Empowering  Life  of  Christ         135 

this,  so  long  as  we  think  of  Christ  in  his  own  person. 
But  when  we  seek  to  make  a  practical  application 
of  it,  and  confess  that  he  is  perfectly  able  to  do  in 
us  all  that  he  requires  of  us,  it  immediately  becomes 
another  matter.  We  are  perfectly  aware  that  all 
his  almightiness  is  available  for  us,  but  when  we 
put  it  in  the  light  that  he  is  to  do  our  obeying 
through  us  by  his  own  power,  it  becomes  a  puzzle 
to  many.    Where  do  we  come  in  ? 

CHRISTIAN    LIVING   ALL   OF  GRACE 

Stop  and  think  a  minute.  Christ's  abihty  on  our 
behalf  is  available  only  on  the  basis  of  grace,  and 
most  of  us  know  all  too  httle  about  the  meaning  of 
grace.  Grace  means  that  God  does  it  all  while  we 
consent. 

Paul  speaks  of  Christ  as  the  one  *'Who  is  our 
life."^  Not  **Who  gives  us  life,"  but  "Who  is  our 
Hfe."  And  again  we  are  told  that  God  has  "given 
to  us  eternal  life,  and  this  life  is  in  his  Son/'^  This 
is  why  it  is  that  only  he  who  ''hath  the  Son  hath 
life."' 

Now  if  Christ  is  our  Hfe,  you  cannot  fail  to  see 
what  bearing  this  has  on  our  obedience.  Whatever 
is  done  for,  in,  or  through  the  Christian,  his  life 
must  do  it.  If  the  life  does  not  do  it,  it  cannot 
possibly  be  done.  Whatever  is  done  for,  in  and 
through  my  physical  body,  is  done  by  my  physical 
life.  In  the  same  manner,  whatever  is  done  for, 
in,  or  through  the  Church,  the  body  of  Christ,  he 
who  is  our  Hfe  must  do.     Apart  from  him  neither 


iCol.  3:4.       n  John  5:n.       "1  John  5:12. 


136  Every-Member  Evangelism 

the  body  nor  any  member  of  the  body  can  do  any- 
thing; he  himself  says  so.  His  body  is  as  helpless 
as  any  body  without  life,  or  with  life  present  and 
completely  inactive.  This  must  mean  that  whatever 
is  done  in  a  Christian  in  obedience  to  any  of  God's 
commands,  Christ  himself  must  do.  And  he  does 
do  it,  when  we  consent,  for  he  is  perfectly  able; 
Therefore, 

(1)     Christ  himself  is  our  victory. 

When  some  harmful  thing  seeks  entrance  into 
my  physical  being,  it  is  my  physical  life  that  warns 
me  against  it.  When  that  which  is  harmful  slips 
past  the  guards  into  the  system,  it  is  the  physical 
life  that  rises  up  at  once  and  concentrates  all  its 
forces  to  fight  it  and  drive  it  out.  And  when  vic- 
tory over  harmful  forces  is  won,  it  is  the  life  that 
wins  the  victory. 

Even  so  is  it  with  the  Christian.  And  yet  how 
few  have  ever  learned  it!  When  the  enemy  to 
spiritual  health  seeks  entrance,  instead  of  instantly 
turning  the  temptation  over  to  him  who  is  our  life, 
we  set  our  jaws,  stiffen  our  muscles,  and  then  fight 
with  desperate  stubbornness,  meanwhile  calling  on 
our  Life  to  help  us,  and  finally  go  down  to  defeat. 
Of  course !  There  never  is  and  never  can  be  victory 
until  we  are  at  an  end  of  all  our  effort  and  turn  it 
over  completely  to  him.  When  temptation  comes, 
let  him  handle  it.  We  are  no  match  for  Satan,  but 
he  is.    Let  him  be  the  victory. 

And  this  old  self-Hfe  that  is  within  us — let  him 
take  care  of  that.    We  do  not  have  to  nail  it  to  the 


The  Empowering  Life  of  Christ         137 

cross,  nor  take  the  stenchful  thing  into  the  dissect- 
ing room  and  carve  it  up  piece  by  piece.  He  himself^ 
through  the  Holy  Spirit,  is  an  end  to  all  the  activity 
of  self,  just  as  heat  puts  an  end  to  the  condition  of 
cold,  n  you  want  the  darkness  driven  out,  simply 
give  the  light  a  chance.  And  if  you  want  to  have* 
the  self-life  put  out  of  business,  turn  it  over  to* 
Christ  and  reckon  on  him.  "Reckon  ye  also  your- 
selves to  be  dead  unto  sin  ("sin"  in  this  passage 
means  self),  but  alive  unto  God  in  Christ  Jesus" ;^ 
not  living  by  any  effort  of  your  own,  but  living  in 
Christ,  his  life  doing  the  living  in  you.  This  will 
put  self  completely  out  of  business,  for  all  chance 
for  even  the  slightest  activity  will  be  gone. 

Remember  how  Paul  puts  it  when  he  is  speaking 
of  the  works  of  the  flesh.  He  does  not  say.  Put 
away  bitterness,  wrath,  anger,  and  so  on,  but  ''Let 
all  bitterness,  and  wrath,  and  anger,  and  clamour, 
and  railing  be  put  away  from  you  with  all  malice."* 
Let  Christ  do  it.  H  he  cannot  handle  every  form  of 
the  enemy's  activity  without  our  help,  it  cannot  be 
done !    But  he  can,  for  he  is  able. 

(2)     Christ  himself  is  our  character. 

He  does  not  simply  give  us  character,  he  is  our 
character.  Character  is  received,  not  achieved. 
Christian  character  is  an  indwelling  Person. 

Those  nine  beautiful  graces  that  go  to  make  up 
normal  Christian  character — ^-love,  joy,  peace,  long- 
suffering,  gentleness,  goodness,  faith,  meekness,  self- 
control, — they   are   all   "the  fruit   of   the   Spirit."^ 

iRom.   6:11    (R.   V.).       ^ilph.  4:31.       sGal.  5:22-23. 


138  Every- Member  Evangelism 

Not  one  of  them  is  the  fruit  of  the  Christian.  No 
Christian  can  produce  any  one  of  those  graces,  much 
less  all  of  them,  for  they  constitute  the  character  of 
Christ,  and  therefore  only  he  is  capable  of  produc- 
ing them.  But  he  does  produce  them  in  us  by  the 
Holy  Spirit,  when  we  consent. 

Note  how  his  method  of  doing  it  leaves  the  whole 
responsibility  for  our  character  on  himself.  "We 
^11,  with  unveiled  face  beholding  as  in  a  mirror  the 
glory — the  character — of  the  Lord,  are  transformed 
into  the  same  image  from  glory — from  one  level  of 
character — to  glory — to  another  level  of  character, 
even  as  from  the  Lord  the  Spirit."^ 

There  is  nothing  here  of  the  "character  building" 
we  hear  so  much  of  these  days.  While  we  behold 
him,  he  transforms  us.  There  is  no  effort  here.  It 
is  all  done  by  him. 

This  is  what  spiritual  growth  is.  We  do  not  do 
the  growing,  he  does  it  in  us.  Christ  said,  "Consider 
the  lilies  of  the  field,  how  they  grow."^  It  is  the 
life  of  the  lily  that  does  the  growing.  Just  so  it  is 
Christ  in  us  who  does  our  growing,  becoming  within 
us  one  level  of  character  after  another  as  our  capac- 
ity for  him  increases.  While  we  do  the  beholding, 
he  does  the  transforming. 

(3)     Christ  himself  performs  our  service. 

He  does  it  through  us  as  we  yield.  He  performs 
through  us  every  bit  of  spiritual  service  that  is  ever 
done.    If  he  does  not  do  it,  it  is  not  spiritual  service. 

12  Cor.  3:18  (R.  V.).       ^Matt.  6:28. 


The  Empowering  Life  of  Christ         139 

It  is  imperative  that  we  take  in  this  great  truth, 
for  it  is  failure  to  apprehend  it  that  keeps  thousands 
of  earnest  Christians  from  active  work  for  the  lost. 
They  think  they  themselves  must  perform  whatever 
service  is  done,  with  Christ  re-enforcing  them  by 
furnishing  whatever  they  happen  to  lack.  They 
do  not  at  all  grasp  the  fact  that  they  have  nothing 
and  can  do  nothing,  and  that  whatever  is  done 
Christ  must  do. 

Think  of  the  vine  and  the  branches.  While  the 
fruit  grows  on  the  branches,  yet  every  bit  of  life  that 
produces  it  comes  from  the  vine.  "From  me  is  thy 
fruit  found,"^  said  the  Lord  in  the  Old  Testament, 
and  Christ  illustrates  how  it  is  done  by  this  wonder- 
ful parable  of  the  vine  and  the  branches,  emphasiz- 
ing the  fact  that  apart  from  him  we  can  do  nothing. 

All  our  soul-winning,  then,  he  does  as  we  let  him 
use  us  in  personal  work.  The  burden  of  intense  and 
agonized  prayer  that  we  feel  for  some  lost  soul  is 
his  yearning  through  us.  The  impulse  to  speak 
the  words  we  say,  no  matter  how  simple  they  are, 
is  his  life  expressing  itself  through  us.  All  true 
spiritual  service  is  according  to  his  working,  which 
worketh  in  us  mightily. 

Do  you  recall  that  river  of  blessing  of  which 
Ezekiel  writes  in  the  forty-seventh  chapter  of  his 
prophecy?  As  soon  as  it  left  the  temple  it  started 
straight  for  the  Dead  Sea,  healing  and  making 
fruitful  on  its  way  there  all  with  which  it  came 
into  contact,  except  the  marshes.     Observe !    What 


iHosea   14:8. 


140  Every- Member  Evangelism 

was  it  that  did  that  healing?  Was  it  the  temple, 
or  the  waters  that  flowed  from  the  temple?  And 
when  you  enthrone  Christ  in  your  life,  which  is  his 
temple,  and  the  rivers  of  living  water  begin  to  flow 
from  your  inmost  being,  as  he  has  promised  they 
should,  is  it  you  yourself — the  temple,  or  the  waters 
of  life  flowing  out  through  your  ministry  from 
Christ  himself  from  which  the  healing  comes? 

No,  child  of  God,  soul-winning  is  not  your  work, 
it  is  Christ's  work  through  you.  And  so  if  you 
will  put  into  his  hand  just  what  you  have,  whether 
it  is  the  walking  stick  of  Moses  or  the  five  buns 
and  two  fishes  of  the  lad,  he  will  fill  you  and  your 
capacities  with  his  power  and  perform  his  pleasure 
through  your  life.  It  isn't  your  equipment  he  is 
after,  it  is  you,  and  when  he  gets  you  he  can  do 
anything  he  pleases  through  your  equipment, 
whether  much  or  little.  You  may  be  an  impulsive 
fisherman  like  Peter,  or  you  may  be  a  splendidly 
cultured  and  capable  scholar  like  Paul,  but  the  im- 
portant thing  to  him  is  not  your  equipment,  it  is 
you.  Not  that  the  equipment  is  a  matter  of  in- 
difference in  our  service.  Far  from  it.  Every  one 
ought  to  have  the  very  best  possible  equipment. 
But  whatever  of  real  spiritual  service  is  done  Christ 
does  it,  using  our  equipment  whatever  it  is. 

A  splendid  illustration  of  this  occurred  in  an 
evangelistic  campaign  the  writer  conducted  in 
Cleveland,  Ohio.  The  invitation  was  being  given 
after  the  sermon,  and  there  were  perhaps  a  score 
of  inquirers  standing  in  front  of  the  pulpit.     Down 


The  Empowering  Life  of  Christ         141 

in  the  center  of  the  main  floor,  in  view  of  all,  was 
an  electric  lineman  above  forty,  under  such  con- 
viction that  he  was  Hterally  mopping  the  perspira- 
tion from  his  brow,  though  the  temperature  was 
normal.  Many  were  praying  for  him.  Presently 
a  lad  of  twenty  came  from  a  distant  part  of  the 
room,  sat  down  by  the  convicted  man,  a  man  who 
was  regarded  as  a  difficult  case,  and  said  a  few 
simple  words,  and  the  man  got  right  up  and  came 
to  the  front. 
/  Now  see  how  the  Holy  Spirit  brought  that  about. 
For  months  that  man  had  frequently  remarked  to 
his  wife  that  he  didn't  like  the  thought  of  so  many 
linemen  about  his  age  being  killed  in  their  work. 
That  thought  was  constantly  with  him.  Now  with 
this  in  view,  the  Holy  Spirit  moved  that  young 
man — who  knew  nothing  of  what  the  older  man 
had  on  his  mind — to  say  to  him,  "You  know  you 
have  no  lease  on  life.  You  don't  know  you'll  be 
alive  to-morrov  morning.  Now  come  on!"  And 
the  man  came. 

How  did  that  young  man  know  what  to  say? 
The  Holy  Spirit,  who  knew  what  he  had  been  im- 
pressing for  months  on  the  mind  of  that  hneman, 
told  him  what  to  say.  And  he  will  impress  any  one 
who  is  yielded  to  him  with  what  to  say  to  any  one  to 
whom  he  leads  him.  All  he  wants  is  our  willing- 
ness and  he  will  pour  his  omnipotence  out  through 
our  impotence. 

By  this  time  the  meaning  of  the  crucified  life 
must  be  fairly  clear.     In  a  word,  it  is  utterly  turn- 


142  Every -Member  Evangelism 

ing  our  back  on  everything  within  us  that  makes  us 
feel  we  are  something  when  we  are  actually  noth- 
ing, ao(J  turning  our  whole  life  over  to  Christ  that 
he  may  live  his  own  life  in  us  through  the  Holy 
Spirit.  It  is  an  absolute  abandonment  of  all  our 
ideas,  plans,  ambitions,  methods,  possessions — 
everything  that  we  are  and  have,  that  Christ  may 
from  henceforth  be  within  us  all  he  requires  us  to 
be,  and  do  through  us  all  he  requires  us  to  do. 
It  is  literally  to  die  to  ourselves  that  he  may  live 
within  us.  This  is  the  life  through  which  Christ 
can  reach  the  lost. 

Now  some  reader  is  asking,  How  can  one  enter 
upon  such  a  wonderful  life  as  this?  We  will  there- 
fore seek  the  answer. 

//.     The  Method  of  Entering  the  Crucified  Life 

Christ  said  to  his  disciples,  "Follow  me,  and  I 
will  make  you  fishers  of  men."^  He  says  the  same 
thing  to  us  with  added  spiritual  emphasis.  We  are 
to  follow  him  all  the  way  to  the  cross  in  order  to 
become  fishers  of  men.  "It  is  enough  for  the  dis- 
ciple that  he  be  as  his  master."^  He  blazed  the 
path,  he  set  the  pattern,  and  he  himself  is  the 
power  to  follow. 

We  shall  think  first  of  following  Christ  to  the 
cross,  and  then  of  fellowshiping  with  him  in  the 
cross. 
1.     Following  Christ  to  the  Cross 

How  may  a  Christian  follow  Christ  to  his  cross? 

»Matt.   4:19.     *Matt.    10:25. 


The  Empowering  Life  of  Christ         143 

By  dying  to  self  in  the  same  spirit  in  which  he 
died  for  the  lost.  He  went  to  the  cross  in  order 
that  he  might  be  able  to  save.  We  must  die  to  self 
for  the  same  purpose. 

There  is  a  uniqueness  in  his  cross  that  we  can- 
not share.  As  the  sinner's  substitute  and  saviour 
he  is  absolutely  and  eternally  alone,  being  forsaken 
in  the  hour  of  his  crucifixion  even  of  his  Father. 

But  as  the  controlling  principle  of  life,  the  cross 
is  for  every  Christian,  and  we  not  only  can  but 
must  follow  him  here  if  we  are  to  be  made  fishers 
of  men. 

We  must  therefore  die  to  everything  but  the  will 
of  God,  that  thus  God's  will  may  come  to  be  done 
in  others  through  the  service  of  our  yielded  lives. 
We  must  not  surrender  to  God  in  order  that  we  may 
be  happy.  It  is  true  that  the  crucified  life  is  the 
only  really  happy  life  on  earth,  but  if  we  seek  to 
enter  the  life  that  we  may  be  happy,  we  shall  never 
enter.  Our  whole  purpose  must  be,  not  our  own 
joy,  but  the  salvation  of  the  lost, 

THE    SACRIFICIAL    AND    SELFISH    PRINCIPLES 

There  are  only  two  fundamental  principles  of  life 
to  choose  between.  One  is  the  sacrificial  principle, 
and  the  other  the  selfish.  And  these  principles  are 
mutually  exclusive.  When  one  dominates  the  hfe, 
the  other  is  driven  out.  We  can  never  become 
fishers  of  men  if  our  Hves  are  dominated  by  the 
selfish  principle,  and  the  sacrificial  principle  means 
the  cross. 


144  Every -Member  Evangelism 

One  of  those  great  passages  where  this  truth  is 
unfolded  is  the  story  of  events  surrounding  Peter's 
great  confession  of  Christ's  deity.^  You  recall 
that  after  asking  the  disciples  what  men  were  say- 
ing about  him,  doubtless  to  get  their  thought  cen- 
tered on  himself,  he  asked  them,  "But  whom  say  ye 
that  I  am?" 

Then  came  Peter's  confession,  "Thou  art  the 
Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God,"  after  which 
Christ  lifts  the  veil  a  bit  concerning  the  things  that 
are  before  him,  and  indicates  the  disciples'  relation 
to  them. 

Then  a  most  significant  thing  occurs.  "From 
that  time  forth  began  Jesus  to  show  unto  his  dis- 
ciples how  that  he  must  go  unto  Jerusalem,  and 
suffer  many  things  of  the  elders  and  chief  priests 
and  scribes,  and  be  killed,  and  be  raised  again  the 
third  day." 

Why  did  Christ  speak  of  his  coming  death  at  the 
time  when  his  deity  was  first  recognized  and  con- 
fessed by  his  disciples?  Why  not  at  some  time 
earlier  or  later?    Why  just  then? 

It  seems  as  though  he  must  have  done  it  in  order 
that  the  disciples  might  be  able  to  associate  his  death 
with  his  deity  in  their  thought  of  him,  and  might 
always  be  able  to  recall  that  the  sacrificial  principle 
lies  at  the  very  center  of  God's  being,  and  is  the 
spring  of  all  his  relations  with  created  moral  in- 
telligences. The  cross  was  always  potential  in  the 
heart  of  God  before  it  became  actual  in  the  death 

*Matt.   16:13-25. 


The  Empowering  Life  of  Christ         145 

of  his  Son.  Christ  was  the  Lamb  of  God  slain  in 
his  purposes  from  the  unbegun  beginning.  What 
more  natural,  therefore,  than  to  connect  his  death 
immediately  with  the  disciples'  recognition  of  his 
deity  ? 

Then  Peter,  you  recall,  rebuked  him  and  said, 
**Be  it  far  from  thee,  Lord :  this  shall  not  be  unto 
thee.".  But  Christ  turned  to  Peter  and  said,  "Thou 
savorest  not  the  things  that  be  of  God  [the  sacri- 
ficial spirit],  but  those  that  be  of  men  [the  selfish 
spirit]." 

THE  PROGRAM   OF  THE   CROSS 

Then  he  unfolds  both  the  program  and  the  prod- 
uct of  the  cross. 

"If  any  man  will  come  after  me,"  he  said,  let 
him  do  three  things.  Let  him  first  "deny  him- 
self," second,  let  him  "take  up  his  cross,"  and  third, 
let  him  "follow  me."  This  is  the  program  of  the 
cross.     Look  at  it  a  moment. 

Let  him  who  would  come  after  me  "deny  him- 
self." What  does  this  mean?  Does  it  have  refer- 
ence to  those  periods  of  self-denial  that  we  fre- 
quently practise?  Far  from  it!  It  does  not  mean 
denying  things  to  self  at  all,  but  denying  self  itself. 
It  means,  "let  him  deny  his  self/* 

But  how  can  a  man  deny  his  self? 

Precisely  as  Peter  denied  his  Lord.  He  said, 
"I  don't  belong  to  him;  I  am  not  one  of  his  com- 
pany ;  I  have  nothing  to  do  with  him."  And  in 
exactly  this  same  way  we  are  to  say  to  self,   "I 


146  Every -Member  Evangelism 

don't  belong  to  you;  I  want  your  fellowship  no 
longer ;  I  will  have  nothing  more  to  do  with  you  1" 
We  are  to  turn  our  back  on  self  for  good.  We 
are  from  that  moment  to  "make  no  provision  for 
the  flesh,  to  fulfill  the  lusts  thereof."^ 

The  second  thing  is  "take  up  his  cross."  This  is 
where  many  miss  the  meaning.  Some  are  so  hope- 
lessly mixed  on  the  meaning  of  the  cross  that  they 
get  it  mixed  with  their  burdens  and  their  thorns 
in  the  flesh.  We  sometimes  hear  some  earnest  but 
confused  Christian  woman  say  that  her  cross  is  an 
unsaved  husband !  It  may  be  a  grievous  burden 
to  her,  or  a  thorn  in  the  flesh  that  her  husband  is 
living  a  godless  life,  but  it  is  never  her  cross.  It 
is  those  who  have  this  conception  that  talk  about 
their  "crosses."  There  is  no  such  thing.  The 
word  "crosses"  cannot  be  found  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment.    There  is  but  one  cross. 

What  does  it  mean  for  a  Qiristian  to  "take  up 
his  cross"?    What  is  his  cross? 

There  is  only  one  way  to  reach  the  meaning,  and 
that  is  to  find  out  what  the  cross  was  to  Christ. 
For  what  it  was  to  Christ  it  will  be  to  us. 

It  was  the  instrument  of  death  to  him.  It  must 
also  be  the  instrument  of  death  to  us. 

But  death  in  what  way?    Death  to  what? 

Death  to  the  self  we  have  just  denied. 

Then  the  third  thing  he  tells  us  to  do  is,  "Fol- 
low me."  Here  again  many  earnest  Christians  are 
confused.     They  have  the  idea  that  the  cross  is  a 

'Rom.  13:14. 


The  Empowering  Life  of  Christ        147 

burden  of  some  sort  that  we  are  to  shoulder  and 
carry  about  with  us  all  the  rest  of  our  Hves,  for 
Christ  tells  the  disciple  to  take  up  his  cross  and 
follow  him,  and  are  we  not  to  follow  him  through 
life?  This  is  where  the  idea  comes  from  that  the 
cross  is  a  burden.  But  nothing  could  be  farther 
from  the  Master's  meaning.  Study  his  thought  a 
moment. 

Where  did  he  go  with  his  cross?  For  we  are 
to  follow  him  with  our  cross  to  the  place  where 
he  went  with  his. 

He  went  with  his  cross  to  the  place  of  death. 
So  if  we  take  up  our  cross  and  follow  him,  where 
shall  we  go? 

To  the  same  place.  To  the  place  of  death.  We 
can  not  fail  to  see  that  Christ  meant  this  and  noth- 
ing else,  when  we  put  all  he  said  together.  Notice 
just  what  he  said.  "If  any  man  will  come  after 
me,  let  him  deny  himself  [his  self],  take  up  his 
cross  [the  instrument  of  death  to  make  the  denial 
of  self  effectual],  and  follow  me  [to  the  place  of 
death  to  self]." 

But  some  one  reminds  us  just  here  that  Christ 
told  us  to  take  up  our  cross  daily. 

There  is  no  difficulty  here.  When  we  have  once 
accepted  that  power  of  the  cross  into  our  lives 
which  brings  into  our  experience  our  crucifixion 
in  Christ  in  a  transaction  that  is  to  be  once  for 
all,  we  are  then  to  allow  the  cross  to  manifest  its 
power  in  us  daily  that  we  may  be  daily  kept  in  the 
place  of  death,  that  the  life  of  the  risen  Christ  may 
work  in  us  and  through  us  unhindered. 


148  Every -Member  Evangelism 

Sophie  the  scrubwoman  put  it  about  right  in  one 
of  her  "sermons."  She  said,  *1  find  dat  de  only 
vay  to  lead  de  right  life  is  to  commit  suicide  efVy 
day.  You  haf  to  die  daily  und  go  to  your  own 
funeral.  You  die  to  mean  self,  und  den  you  haf  to 
up  und  die  to  good  self,  und  de  sooner  you  die, 
de  better  you  Hf." 

Now  if  this  exposition  of  these  verses  is  not  cor- 
rect, then  you  will  have  to  explain  the  meaning  of 
the  very  next  verse ;  for  Christ  says  immediately, 
''Whosoever  will  save  his  life  [from  the  cross] 
shall  lose  it;  and  whosoever  will  lose  his  Hfe  [on 
the  cross]  for  my  sake  shall  find  it." 

THE   PRODUCT   OF   THE    CROSS 

Notice  those  words,  ''shall  find  it"  This  is  the 
product  of  the  cross;  and  it  comes  only  by  follow- 
ing the  program  of  the  cross.  It  is  a  life  yielded 
to  the  cross  and  therefore  found  again. 

Found  again  how  ?  How  can  a  life  that  is  given 
up  to  death  on  the  cross  ever  be  found  again? 

Christ  explains  how  it  is  found  again  in  most 
striking  fashion  on  a  later  occasion  when  he  says, 
"Except  a  corn  of  wheat  fall  into  the  ground  and 
die,  it  abideth  alone ;  but  if  it  die,  it  bringeth  forth 
much  fruit."^  That  is,  to  follow  the  selfish  prin- 
ciple and  save  the  life  from  the  cross  is  to  lose 
it;  but  to  follow  the  sacrificial  principle  and  die  on 
the  cross  is  to  find  it  in  a  vastly  multiplied  form. 
This  is  precisely  why  we  must  follow  Christ  all  the 

ijohn  12:24. 


The  Empowering  Life  of  Christ         149 

way  through  death  to  self  before  we  can  reach  the 
ground  where  multipHcation  and  fruitage  take  place. 
This  is  what  it  means  to  follow  him  that  we  may 
become  fishers  of  men. 

Now  to  sum  up  the  cross  principle,  it  is  to  lay 
down  a  life  which  may  not  in  itself  be  wrong,  but 
which,  if  we  Hve,  we  shall  live  alone,  in  order  that, 
laying  it  down,  we  may  take  it  up  again  in  ever- 
increasing  fruitage.  This  is  following  Christ  to  the 
cross. 
2.     Fellozvshiping  With  Christ  in  His  Cross 

How  may  we  fellowship  with  Christ  in  his  cross  ? 
How  may  the  crucified  life  become  our  daily  ex- 
perience ? 

By  faith  clone. 

Faith  means,  you  recall,  that  we  trust  some  one 
else  to  do  for  us  what  we  cannot  possibly  do  for 
ourselves. 

Then  recall  that  "the  just  shall  live  by  faith"^ 
which  means  that  every  minutest  activity  of  the 
Christian  life  is  performed  by  another  within  and 
through  us  while  we  trust. 

This  means  a  permanent  cessation  of  all  our  own 
doing,  for  the  moment  effort  comes  in  at  the  door, 
faith  flies  out  at  the  window.  Faith  and  works 
can  never  dwell  together  in  the  same  heart.  When 
one  is  in,  the  other  is  out. 

This  means  also  that  we  are  even  to  cease  our 
doing  by  faith,  and  not  by  effort.  That  is,  we  are 
not  to  try  to  make  self  quit  its  activity,  for  as  long 


iRom.  1:17. 


150  Every -Member  Evangelism 

as  we  make  any  effort  whatever  it  will  be  impos- 
sible for  self  to  quit.  As  long  as  we  do  anything 
to  make  effective  our  death  to  self  in  Christ,  it  will 
be  impossible  for  self  to  die  out  of  our  experience, 
because  it  is  by  our  doing  that  self  stays  alive. 

Christ,  therefore,  makes  the  cross  a  living  ex- 
perience in  our  lives  by  himself  being  within  us 
the  power  to  cease  from  self  as  we  trust  him,  and 
daily  maintaining  the  death  of  self  by  his  own  life 
within  us. 

But  the  moment  we  cease  to  trust  him  to  do  even 
the  smallest  thing,  and  start  out  to  do  it  by  our 
own  effort,  that  moment  self  comes  down  from  the 
cross  and  renews  its  activity  in  our  lives.  The  just 
must  live  all  the  time  by  faith,  and  not  a  moment 
by  effort.  The  normal  Christian  life  is  the  effort- 
less life.  So  if  you  find  it  hard  to  live  the  Chris- 
tian life,  you  are  trying  to  live  it  instead  of  trust- 
ing him  to  live  it.  The  fact  is,  Christian  living  is 
not  simply  hard  to  a  Christian,  it  is  impossible.  It 
is  a  supernatural  life,  and  it  therefore  takes  a 
supernatural  Person  to  live  it. 

THE  EFFORTLESS   LIFE   AND   SOUL-WINNING 

Now  all  this  means  that  we  can  trust  Christ — 
yes,  that  we  must  trust  Christ  to  do  every  bit  of  the 
soul-winning  through  us  that  he  requires  of  us,  for 
he  is  able  and  we  are  not.  Paul  says  that  he  is 
"able  to  do  exceeding  abundantly  above  all  that  we 
ask  or  think,"  and  then  he  tells  us  what  he  does 
while  we  trust  when  he  adds,  "according  to  the 


The  Empowering  Life  of  Christ         151 

power  that  worketh  in  iis."'^  Not  according  to  our 
own  power  or  working,  but  according  to  his. 

Then  in  another  place  Paul  tells  us  how  this 
power  puts  us  above  every  power  that  hinders.  He 
speaks  of  it  as  *'the  exceeding  greatness  of  his 
power  to  US-ward  who  believe  [not  to  those  who 
make  any  effort  whatever] ,  according  to  that  work- 
ing of  the  strength  of  his  might  [not  ours]  which 
he  wrought  in  Christ  when  he  raised  him  from  the 
dead,  and  made  him  to  sit  at  his  right  hand  in  the 
heavenly  places,  far  above  all  rule,  and  authority, 
and  power,  and  dominion  [then  certainly  over  all  our 
enemies,  the  world,  the  flesh,  and  the  devil],  and 
every  name  that  is  named,  not  only  in  this  world, 
but  also  in  that  which  is  to  come;  and  he  put  all 
things  in  subjection  under  his  feet  [and  therefore 
under  ours]  and  gave  him  to  be  head  over  all 
things  to  the  church,  which  is  his  body,  the  fulness 
of  him  that  filleth  all  in  all"";  all  of  which  means 
that  through  faith  we  fellowship  with  Christ  in  the 
literal  working  in  our  daily  experience  of  his  power 
over  all  things. 

Then  in  still  another  place  Paul  tells  us  how  the 
power  that  puts  us  above  the  enemy  also  works  in 
us  the  attitude  of  Christ  toward  the  lost.  He  tells 
us  how  he  has  suffered  the  loss  of  all  things,  and 
counts  them  but  refuse,  that  he  might  know 
Christ,  *'and  the  power  of  his  resurrection,  and  the 
fellowship  of  his  sufferings,  being  made  conform- 
able unto  his  death."'    You  notice  that  the  resur- 


lEph.   3:20.     ^Eph.   1:19-23    (R.  V.).     'Phil.  3:10. 


152  Every -Member  Evangelism 

rection,  in  this  passage,  precedes  the  sufferings  and 
the  death.  But  you  will  notice  also  that  it  is  the 
power  of  his  resurrection  that  Paul  speaks  of. 
This  is  why  it  comes  first;  for  it  is  the  power  of 
the  risen  life  of  the  indwelHng  Christ  that  works  in 
us  perpetual  fellowship  with  his  sufferings  and  death 
for  others. 

In  one  other  passage  Paul  tells  us  how  to  receive 
the  crucified  life  into  our  experience  when  he  says, 
"Let  this  mind  be  in  you,  which  was  also  in  Christ 
Jesus."^  Could  anything  be  easier  than  to  let  the 
mind  of  Christ  possess  us?  It  is  like  letting  air 
into  a  vacuum.  Simply  open  a  way  of  entrance, 
and  the  air  takes  possession.  And  Paul  tells  us 
also  what  the  mind  of  Christ  is  in  the  words,  *'Who, 
being  in  the  form  of  God,  did  not  reckon  his  equality 
with  God  a  thing  to  be  clung  to;  but  emptied  him- 
self, taking  the  form  of  a  servant,  and  was  made 
in  the  likeness  of  men;  and  being  found  in  fashion 
as  a  man,  he  humbled  himself,  and  became  obedient 
unto  death,  even  the  death  of  the  cross.'"^  To  open 
the  heart  to  the  mind  of  Christ,  therefore,  is  to 
accept  his  attitude  toward  death  to  self  that  others 
might  live. 

The  application  of  all  this  to  soul-winning  is  most 
practical.  It  means  two  very  definite  things.  It 
means  that  by  the  power  of  the  indwelhng  life  we 
die  to  all  consciousness  of  our  ability,  and  also  to 
all  consciousness  of  our  lack  of  ability. 

iPhil.  2:5.       sPhil.  2:6-8    (1911   Bible). 


The  Empowering  Life  of  Christ         153 

CONSCIOUSNESS    OF    ABILITY    HINDERS 

This  brings  before  us  a  class  of  workers  that  it 
is  very  hard  to  get  along  with.  It  is  those  who  are 
conscious  of  ability,  real  or  imaginary.  They  may 
be  very  modest  in  manner,  though  sometimes  they 
are  not,  but  they  know  little  or  nothing  of  what 
it  means  to  cease  from  themselves  and  let  Christ 
do  it  all.  They  are  among  the  hardest  to  work  with 
in  any  soul-saving  effort.  All  evangelists  and 
evangelistic  pastors  know  them,  and  they  are 
among  the  thorns  in  their  flesh  in  an  evangelistic 
campaign.  When  a  call  is  made  for  personal  work- 
ers these  people  are  not  only  ready  to  present  them- 
selves, but  they  frequently  seek  to  push  themselves 
forward.  The  presence  of  such  people  in  a  con- 
gregation sometimes  makes  it  necessary  to  avoid  a 
public  call  and  pick  out  workers  in  private.  They 
are  frequently  very  agreeable,  though  sometimes 
this  is  not  true,  and  are  often  kind-hearted,  and 
even  gifted  with  a  natural  ability  that  is  unusual. 

But,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  they  are  utterly  un- 
fit for  service,  for  self  dominates  them.  One  evi- 
dence of  this  is  their  ill-concealed  desire  to  be  at 
the  front.  And  even  if  this  is  not  much  in  evi- 
dence, they  are  always  very  sensitive  and  touchy. 
It  is  almost  impossible  to  make  any  corrective  sug- 
gestions to  them,  and  altogether  impossible  to  ask 
them  to  step  aside  from  a  piece  of  work  they  arc 
bungling,  for  if  that  is  done  they  are  instantly  in- 
•censed  and  offended,  sometimes  to  the  point  of 
denunciation  and  even  withdrawal  from  the  work 
altogether. 


154  Every -Member  Evangelism 

WHAT    TOUCHINESS    SHOWS 

This  is  where  they  reveal  the  fact  that  self 
dominates.  For  self  is  full  of  pride,  and  is  there- 
fore always  easily  offended  and  very  touchy. 
Touchiness  is  self-conceit  set  with  a  hair-trigger, 
ready  to  go  off  at  the  least  offense.  And  every- 
thing that  even  seems  to  raise  the  slightest  ques- 
tion as  to  their  ability  is  ample  occasion  for  offense. 

With  the  crucified  life  it  is  just  the  opposite. 
There  isn't  any  self  to  be  offended,  for  self  is  on 
the  cross  and  Christ  lives  within.  Among  the 
graces  named  in  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit  is  peace, 
and  the  Word  says,  "Great  peace  have  they  that 
love  thy  law,  and  nothing  shall  offend  them."^  And 
so  if  we  are  offended  over  being  set  aside,  the  fruit 
of  the  Spirit  is  not  being  borne  in  our  lives,  and 
that  means  that  self  dominates. 

When  the  power  of  the  cross  is  working  in  our 
lives,  we  haven't  any  ability  that  we  are  conscious 
of  to  be  discredited,  for  Christ  is  all,  and  so  our 
feelings  are  not  hurt  in  the  least  if  we  are  not  called 
on  for  any  given  service,  or  if  we  are  asked  to  step 
aside  from  the  service  we  are  engaged  in.  For 
even  though  the  leader  we  are  working  under  may 
be  making  a  mistake,  we  will  not  add  another  one 
to  it  by  an  exhibition  of  self.  We  can  safely  leave 
the  leader  with  God  while  we,  like  our  Master,  are 
content  to  be  of  ''no  repiitation"^  and  to  leave  our 
service  altogether  with  him  who  said,  **He  that 
humbleth  himself  shall  be  exalted."^ 


»Psa.    119:165.     'Phil.    2:7.     »Luke    14:11. 


The  Empowering  Life  of  Christ         155 

It  is  very  hard  for  a  self  that  is  conscious  of 
abiHty  to  quit  and  go  to  the  cross,  especially  if  that 
ability  is  being  conscientiously  used  in  what  is  be- 
lieved to  be  the  service  of  God.  Look  at  Saul  of 
Tarsus.  In  birth,  natural  ability,  training,  position 
and  correct  living,  he  was  at  least  on  a  level  with 
the  best  of  his  day.  But  in  the  use  of  his  great 
ability,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  he  lived  in  all  good 
conscience  before  God,  he  was  utterly  dominated  by 
self.  Conscious  of  his  own  ability,  he  rushed  on 
so  madly  in  doing  what  Saul  dictated  that  he  had 
no  ear  to  hear  what  God  dictated,  until  God  was 
finally  compelled  to  smite  him  down  by  the  road- 
side to  make  him  hear. 

But  look  at  the  change  after  he  was  born  from 
above  and  so  filled  with  Christ  that  he  no  longer 
lived  but  Christ  Hved  in  him.  He  calls  himself 
the  "chief  of  sinners,"^  because  although  he  was 
given  perhaps  the  greatest  advantages  of  any  man 
of  his  day,  yet  he  allowed  those  very  advantages 
to  make  him  so  unresponsive  to  God  that  he  had 
to  have  a  vision  from  heaven  before  he  would  get 
his  eyes  off  from  his  own  ambitions  and  on  to 
Christ. 

Notice  what  he  does  with  his  great  ability  after 
he  is  surrendered  to  Christ.  After  saying,  "If  any 
other  man  thinketh  that  he  hath  whereof  he  might 
trust  in  the  flesh,  I  more,"  and  then  after  naming 
the  things  in  which  he  might  have  confidence,  he 

11  Tim.  1:15. 


156  Every -Member  Evangelism 

says,  "What  things  were  gain  to  me,  those  I  counted 
loss  for  Christ,  .  .  .  and  do  count  them  but 
dung,  that  I  may  win  Christ,  .  .  .  that  I  may 
know  him,  and  the  power  of  his  resurrection,  and 
the  fellowship  of  his  sufferings,  being  made  con- 
formable unto  his  death."^  This  means  that  he 
died  to  all  his  natural  ability  and  equipment  that  he 
might  lose  all  dependence  on  them  and  depend  on 
Christ  alone,  and  that  thus  Christ  might  use  them 
in  the  power  of  his  risen  life.  Paul  was  nothing; 
Christ  was  all. 

When  those  who  have  any  natural  ability  and 
training  get  to  this  place,  they  will  henceforth  be 
the  great  joy  of  all  leaders  in  soul-winning  work. 

But  it  is  so  hard  to  die  to  our  ability  that  we 
cannot  do  it.  But  Christ  is  able,  and  he  will  work 
it  in  us  if  we  simply  consent  and  reckon  on  him. 

CONSCIOUSNESS  OF  INABILITY   HINDERS 

There  is  also  another  class  that  it  is  equally  hard 
to  deal  with.  It  is  that  great  company  of  Chris- 
tians who  are  so  painfully  conscious  of  their  lack 
of  ability  that  they  will  never  make  the  first  attempt 
to  take  Christ  to  a  lost  soul.  They  are  everywhere. 
Their  name  is  legion.  And  they  are  the  heart- 
ache of  many  an  evangelist  and  pastor. 

They  are  the  quiet  but  earnest  and  active  Chris- 
tians who  are  usually  ready  for  almost  any  service 
except  personal  work.  They  are  self-conscious  be- 
cause they  think  their  natural  inability  and  lack  of 

»Phil.  3:4-10. 


The  Empowering  Life  of  Christ         157 

equipment  and  training  make  them  altogether  in- 
capable of  doing  such  an  important  work  as  that. 

But,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  these  people  also 
are  dominated  by  self.  Self  has  so  twisted  their 
vision  of  God  that  they  have  come  to  have  a  very 
strange  and  impossible  God.  He  is  most  unreliable, 
at  least  in  one  thing.  He  will  unmistakably  move 
them  to  speak  to  certain  unsaved  souls  and  seek 
to  lead  them  to  them.  By  so  much,  therefore,  he 
is  with  them.  Then  he  will  give  them  his  encour- 
agement and  presence  all  the  way  to  those  unsaved 
souls.  And  so  by  that  much  more  he  is  with  them. 
Then  just  as  they  start  to  say  something  for  their 
Master  to  lead  these  souls  to  accept  him,  strangely 
enough  this  God  of  theirs  will  suddenly  back  out 
from  under  them  and  leave  them  altogether  to  their 
own  resources.  Their  limited  resources  are  reason 
enough,  therefore,  for  their  never  venturing  on  that 
work.  It  must  be  left  to  those  whose  resources 
are  adequate. 

Nothing  but  the  activity  in  our  lives  of  a  guilty 
and  sinful  self  could  ever  move  us  so  to  dishonor 
our  Lord !  It  is  because  our  eyes  are  on  ourselves 
and  not  on  him  that  we  are  ever  capable  of  thinking 
such  a  thing. 

When  did  the  Lord  ever  desert  his  obedient  ser- 
vant? When  did  he  ever  leave  us  to  our  own  re- 
sources in  the  doing  of  his  work  ?  What  has  either 
our  ability  or  lack  of  ability  to  do  with  complete 
obedience  to  his  commands? 

His  commands  are  always  his  enablings.     He  is 


158  Every -Member  Evangelism 

the  God  who  takes  one  to  chase  a  thousand  and 
two  to  put  ten  thousand  to  flight.  He  is  the  one 
who  can  take  a  worm  and  thresh  a  mountain,  and 
use  even  the  things  that  are  not  to  bring  to  naught 
the  things  that  are.  He  is  the  God  who  can  use  a 
shout  to  throw  down  the  battlements  of  a  city,  and 
three  hundred  pitchers  and  torches  to  defeat  an 
army  of  135,000.  And  then  we  back  up  when  he 
proposes  to  use  us  because  we  lack  abiHty! 

We  shall  have  to  turn  utterly  away  from  this  sin- 
ful self-consciousness  before  we  shall  ever  be  where 
God  can  use  us.  It  makes  no  difference  whether 
we  have  ability  or  inability,  the  Lord  is  able,  and 
(that  is  enough!  He  will  do  through  us  what  he 
requires  of  us,  no  matter  what  our  equipment  or 
lack  of  it. 

It  is  something  like  this.  In  your  watch  are  two 
springs.  One  is  called  the  main-spring  and  the 
other  the  hair-spring.  The  hair-spring  actuates  a 
little  oscillating  wheel  called  the  escapement.  The 
escapement  for  what?  For  power.  For  what 
power  ?  For  the  power  of  the  main-spring.  When 
does  the  power  of  the  main-spring  begin  to  es- 
cape ?  Not  when  the  escapement  acquires  some  new 
or  different  ability,  but  simply  when  it  goes  to 
work ! 

Precisely  so,  Christ's  life  within  us  is  the  main- 
spring of  our  life  and  activity,  and  we  are  the  es- 
capement for  his  saving  message  into  the  world — 
that  message  that  is  the  power  of  God  unto  salva- 
tion to  those  who  believe  it.     And  so  just  as  long 


The  Empowering  Life  of  Christ         159 

as  we  refuse  to  surrender  to  his  power  and  go  to 
work  for  the  lost,  just  that  long  the  saving  power 
that  is  in  the  message  cannot  escape  through  us. 
But  just  the  moment  we  go  to  work  for  the  lost, 
utterly  dependent  on  him  because  he  is  able,  just 
that  moment  his  power  will  begin  to  operate  through 
us. 

This  does  not  mean  in  any  sense  of  the  word 
that  surrender  to  him  will  set  aside  our  personality. 
He  empowers  our  personality  and  uses  just  what 
we  are  and  have.  The  power  of  the  main-spring 
does  not  change  the  hair-spring,  it  uses  it.  The 
electricity  does  not  change  the  nature  or  character- 
istics of  the  dynamo  or  the  heater  in  the  street-car 
when  it  takes  possession  of  them,  it  acts  through 
them  according  to  their  nature.  So  also  does  the 
indwelling  Christ  with  us. 

This  is  the  attitude  toward  Christ  that  puts  self 
out  of  business  so  completely  that  we  become  en- 
tirely unconscious  of  both  ability  and  inability  in 
our  consciousness  that  Christ  is  within  us  all  he 
requires  us  to  be,  and  to  do,  and  to  give. 

This  is  what  it  means  to  fellowship  with  Christ 
in  his  cross.  It  is  to  surrender  to  the  power  of  the 
crucified  life  within  us  in  a  definite  and  deliberate 
transaction  which  we  intend  shall  be  both  complete 
and  final. 

This  is  not  a  special  blessing  once  for  all  received, 
however,  whether  "second  blessing"  or  any  other, 
nor  a  special  experience  once  for  all  enjoyed, 
whether  "sanctification"  or  anything  else,  so  much 


160  Every- Member  Evangelism 

as  it  is  a  normal  relationship  once  for  all  recognized, 
accepted  and  entered  upon.  This  is  the  normal 
Christian  life.     Anything  below  this  is  sub-normal. 

HOW  TO  ENTER  IN 

Now  you  are  asking  just  how  to  go  about  it  in 
order  to  enter  upon  the  enjoyment  of  this  relation- 
ship so  that  you  may  no  longer  live,  but  that  Christ 
may  daily  live  his  life  in  you. 

By  faith  alone,  and  never  by  feeling.  For  the 
experience  of  the  life  that  is  Christ  does  not  rest 
on  a  thrill  of  the  nervous  system  but  on  a  fact  that 
faith  reckons  with.  Therefore  rest  once  and  for 
all  on  the  fact  and  do  not  look  for  an  experience. 
You  will  have  experiences,  many  and  blessed,  but 
they  will  always  be  the  result  of  the  reckoning  of 
faith,  and  never  the  outgrowth  of  feeling.  Feeling 
comes  from  following,  and  following  is  by  faith 
alone  entirely  apart  from  feehng. 

What  is  the  fact,  then,  with  which  faith  is  to 
reckon? 

The  fact  that  our  crucifixion  to  self  does  not  have 
to  be  done  at  some  point  of  time  in  our  lives  when 
we  consent,  but  that  it  has  been  done  already  in 
Christ  when  we  died  in  him  on  the  cross,  and  that 
therefore  we  were  crucified  to  self,  to  the  world  and 
to  Satan  the  instant  we  were  baptized  by  the  Holy 
Spirit  into  Christ  at  the  moment  of  our  regenera- 
tion. By  the  Spirit  we  were  then  baptized  into  his 
death,  and  by  the  Spirit  we  were  also  then  baptized 
into  the  power  of  his  risen  life.     It  is  therefore 


The  Empowering  Life  of  Christ         161 

already  a  fact  with  which  we  are  to  reckon,  that 
we  are  now  dead  to  sin  (self),  and  are  woze;  living 
unto  God  in  Christ. 

But  just  how  shall  we  go  about  it  to  reckon  with 
this  fact?  How  shall  this  fact  become  a  living 
reahty  in  our  experience? 

Paul  tells  us  when  he  says,  "Let  not  sin  [self] 
therefore  reign  in  your  mortal  body,  that  ye  should 
obey  it  in  the  lusts  thereof/'^ 

But  how  can  we  prevent  sin  from  ruling  over  us 
without  making  an  effort  against  it?  And  the  mo- 
ment we  begin  making  an  effort  does  not  faith 
end?  Where,  then,  can  the  reckoning  of  effortless 
faith  come  in? 

Paul  solves  this  mystery  of  overcoming  self  with- 
out effort  before  he  finishes  the  sentence.  ''Yield 
yourselves  unto  God/'  he  says,  "as  those  that  are 
alive  from  the  dead."^  Being  alive  in  him  we  are 
simply  to  yield  to  him  who  is  our  life  and  he  him- 
self will  not  let  sin  reign  over  us.  It  is  the  fight 
of  faith,  not  the  fight  of  effort,  because  we  are 
simply  trusting  him  to  do  for  us  what  we  are  help- 
less to  do  for  ourselves.  That  is,  while  we  reckon, 
he  makes  the  crucifixion  of  self  which  was  ours  in 
him  the  moment  we  believed  an  actual  reality  in  our 
experience,  thereby  setting  us  free  "that  we  should 
no  longer  be  enslaved  to  sin."* 

In  other  words,  just  as  the  salvation  of  our  souls 
from  the  guilt  of  sin  was  ours  the  moment  Christ 
died  for  us,  and  became  ours  in  fact  the  moment 


iRom.  6:12.       ^Rom.  6:13.       "Rom.  6:6. 
12 


162  Every -Member  Evangelism 

we  reckoned  it  to  be  true  and  accepted  it,  so  the 
salvation  of  our  lives  day  by  day  from  the  power 
of  sin  was  ours  in  Christ's  death,  and  becomes  ours 
in  daily  experience  the  moment  we  reckon  that 
God  has  told  us  the  truth  and  accept  the  fact.  The 
fact  of  our  complete  salvation  from  sin  and  its 
power  has  been  true  since  Calvary.  The  expe- 
rience and  enjoyment  of  that  fact  becomes  a  glorious 
reality  within  us  the  moment  we  believe  and  ac- 
cept it. 

To  enter  upon  this  relationship  with  your  Lord 
is  therefore  very  simple.  Get  alone  with  him  at  a 
time  when  there  will  be  nothing  to  disturb  nor  break 
in.  Then  in  a  most  personal,  intimate,  and  natural 
way,  yield  yourself,  all  you  are  and  all  you  have, 
all  you  will  ever  become  and  all  you  will  ever  have, 
in  a  transaction  that  will  from  thenceforth  put  the 
government  of  your  life  upon  his  shoulder  and  the 
doing  of  your  service  upon  his  power.  And  then 
from  that  moment  reckon  on  him.  Follow  him 
wherever  he  leads  you,  trusting  him  to  be  in  you 
and  to  do  through  you  all  he  requires  of  you. 
Never  wait  for  feeling.  Always  act  on  faith.  The 
responsibility  is  all  his.     Leave  it  there! 

And  if  self  ever  slips  off  the  cross  and  becomes 
active  again,  as  it  surely  will  when  you  stop  reckon- 
ing, confess  it  instantly,  turn  self  over  to  him  again, 
and  take  your  former  stand  on  the  ground  of  a 
faith  which  lets  him  do  it  all  because  you  can  do 
nothing.  This  is  the  method  both  of  entering  and 
of  continuing  in  the  crucified  life. 


CHAPTER  II 
THE  OVERFLOWING  LOVE  OF  CHRIST 

THE  divine  power  is  not  only  the  life  of  Christ 
crucified,  dwelling  in  us,  it  is  also  the  love  of 
Christ  risen,  working  through  us. 

Among  the  wonderful  things  about  our  salva- 
tion, none  is  more  wonderful  than  the  fact  that  God 
not  only  does  it  all  when  he  saves  us,  but  that  he 
even  gives  us  the  faith  with  which  to  receive  his 
salvation.  "For  by  grace  are  ye  saved  through 
faith";  he  says,  "and  that  [even  the  faith]  not  of 
yourselves:  it  is  the  gift  of  God."^  He  leaves  us 
nothing  to  do  but  consent.     He  does  it  all. 

Now  if  the  faith  with  which  we  receive  salva- 
tion is  a  gift,  and  if  everything  that  salvation  itself 
contains  is  a  gift,  this  means  that  Christ  is  the 
source  of  all  our  Christian  activity,  the  center  and 
substance  of  which  is  love. 

Christ  gave  some  intimations  of  this  before  he 
went  away.  He  said  to  his  disciples,  "My  peace 
I  give  unto  you."^  Not  a  prescription  for  peace, 
but  his  peace.  He  himself  was  to  be  their  peace, 
just  as  he  was  on  the  stormy  lake,  except  that  he 
was  to  be  within  them  instead  of  simply  externally 
present  with  them. 


»Eph.   2:8.     'John    14:27. 

163 


164  Every- Member  Evangelism 

And  so  with  every  other  grace.  Ours,  no  matter 
how  capable  they  may  seem,  always  break  down 
under  any  real  test.  A  Sunday-school  Superin- 
tendent stood  on  the  platform  in  an  East  End  Sun- 
day-school in  London  and  saw  his  teachers  prac- 
tically helpless  to  keep  order  as  conditions  in  some 
classes  approached  pandemonium.  He  was  just  on 
the  point  of  ringing  the  bell  sharply  and  saying, 
"The  Sunday-school  is  dismissed;  and  don't  come 
back  again  until  you  can  behave  yourselves!"  But 
just  before  the  impulse  was  yielded  to,  he  suddenly 
lifted  his  heart,  hardly  knowing  why  he  did  so, 
and  cried,  "Thy  patience,  Lord;  I  need  it  quick!** 
And  immediately  a  wonderful  calm  possessed  him 
that  gave  him  perfect  patience  and  poise  in  the 
presence  of  the  distracting  disorder,  and  from  that 
moment  nothing  that  happened  caused  him  the 
slightest  feeling  of  impatience.  His  patience  broke 
down  under  pressure ;  the  Lord's  never  does. 

THE  SOURCE  OF  LOVE  FOR  THE  LOST 

The  same  thing  is  true  of  love,  which  lies  at  the 
heart  of  every  Christian  grace.  The  Lord  said, 
not,  "Continue  ye  loving  me,"  but,  "Continue  ye 
in  my  love/'^  Peter  tried  three  times  to  tell  the 
Lord  he  loved  him,  and  made  a  miserable  failure  of 
it.  But  John  had  no  trouble  telling  us  that  God  loves 
us,  and  Paul  tells  us  that  he  sheds  his  love  all 
abroad  in  our  hearts.  It  is  impossible  to  manufac- 
ture sunshine,  but  it  is  perfectly  easy  to  get  out  and 

ijohn    15:9. 


The  Overflowing  Love  of  Christ        165 

bask  in  God's  sunshine.  We  love  him  because  he 
first  loved  us.  Our  love  for  him  is  simply  his  love 
rising  to  its  source  and  taking  our  hearts  in  on  the 
way. 

All  those  nine  graces  beginning  with  love,  joy, 
peace,  are  after  all  but  love  in  its  various  phases. 
That  is  why  it  is  called  *'fruit,"  not  "fruits,"  for  it 
is  one  fruit,  not  nine. 

And  then  love — what  is  it?  Is  it  a  feeling,  or 
an  emotion,  or  a  sentiment? 

It  is  none  of  these  things,  nor  all  of  them  put  to- 
gether. It  is  infinitely  more.  It  is  that  deliberate 
and  fixed  attitude  of  the  whole  being  which  puts 
the  best  interests  of  the  one  we  love  above  our  own, 
no  matter  at  what  cost  to  ourselves.  And  so  it  is 
entirely  independent  of  sentiment  and  emotion,  for 
it  lies  altogether  back  of  them.  Sometimes  our 
emotion  may  be  in  perfect  harmony  with  our  love, 
as  when  a  parent  gives  his  child  a  present,  and 
sometimes  it  may  be  utterly  against  it,  as  when  a 
parent  gives  his  child  a  punishment. 

HOW   TO   LOVE    OUR    ENEMIES 

Now  the  divine  love  has  no  respect  either  for 
person  or  character.  This  is  why  Christ  told  us, 
as  Christians,  to  love  our  enemies.  For  when  we 
do  that,  our  love  will  then  reach  all  those  between 
our  worst  enemies  and  our  best  friends. 

But  can  we  do  it?  Do  we  love  the  uncouth  and 
the  disgusting?  Do  we  love  those  who  slander  us 
and  deliberately  seek  to  injure  us  ?     Do  we  love  our 


166  Every -Member  Evangelism 

enemies  who  go  about  to  slay  us?  Is  there  a 
Christian  anywhere  who  is  doing  it? 

Think  carefully  for  a  moment  what  it  was  that 
Christ  commanded  us  to  do  for  our  enemies.  He 
said,  ''Love  your  enemies,"^  but  he  did  not  tell  us 
we  must  like  them.  To  like  them  would  imply  ap- 
proval of  their  character,  and  that  would  be  impos- 
sible with  all  whose  characters  were  wrong.  He 
himself  does  not  like  the  sinner,  though  he  loves  him 
so  much  that  he  gave  all  he  had  to  save  him.  For 
love  puts  the  best  interests  of  the  one  we  love  above 
our  own,  no  matter  at  what  cost  to  ourselves,  and 
this  is  what  Christ  did  for  his  enemies,  and  what  we 
are  to  do  for  ours. 

But  we  cannot  do  even  that,  reasonable  and  sim- 
ple as  it  sounds.  No  human  being  can  love  his 
enemy,  even  on  that  basis.  When  Christ  com- 
manded a  thing  like  that,  he  commanded  an  absolute 
human  impossibility.  But  he  who  prayed,  "Father, 
forgive  them,"^  while  they  were  driving  the  nails 
through  hands  and  feet  can  do  it,  and  by  his  in- 
dwelling life  we  can  do  it,  because  he  is  able  to 
do  it  through  us. 

And  we  never  can  know  the  joy  of  loving  until 
we  love  our  enemies  in  the  power  of  his  love.  There 
is  infinitely  more  joy  in  loving  our  worst  enemies 
with  the  love  of  Christ,  than  there  ever  can  be  in 
loving  our  best  friends  with  our  own  love.  That 
medieval  saint  had  experienced  this  joy  when  he 
said,  *Tt  is  so  sweet  to  love  my  enemies  that  if  it 

»Matt.    5:44.     'Luke   23:34. 


The  Overflowing  Love  of  Christ         167 

were  a  sin  to  do  so,  I  fear  I  should  be  tempted  to 
commit  that  sin." 

Now  the  love  of  Christ  going  out  through  us  for 
the  lost  cannot  leave  us  in  a  state  of  inactivity  nor 
the  lost  in  a  state  of  indifference.  We  must  act 
under  its  impulse,  and  they  must  respond  to  it,  even 
if  it  is  to  reject  it.  And  so  when  the  love  of  Christ 
has  possession  of  us,  it  will  both  impel  us  and  com- 
pel the  lost  to  action. 

/.     The  Love  of  Christ  Impels  the  Christian 

After  all  that  has  been  said  about  how  Christ 
lives  his  own  life  within  the  yielded  disciple  through 
the  Holy  Spirit,  we  can  now  understand  how 
Christ's  love  will  impel  us  to  go  after  the  lost  pre- 
cisely as  it  impelled  him.  We  are  also  prepared 
to  see  that  if  we  are  not  doing  this,  it  is  because 
his  life  is  being  suppressed  within  us  by  our  un- 
willingness to  yield  to  it. 

Now  we  can  go  on  to  the  further  truth  that  such 
an  active  outgoing  of  our  lives  for  the  lost  as  his 
love  impels  is  the  life  risen  with  Christ.  When 
Joseph  of  Arimathea  put  a  grave  into  his  garden 
in  which  he  who  went  to  the  cross  for  the  lost  was 
buried,  he  very  soon  had  a  resurrection  there.  And 
when  a  grave  goes  into  the  garden  of  our  hearts 
in  which  self  is  buried  and  all  that  belongs  to  it, 
we  will  also  share  the  resurrection  life  and  fruitful 
activity  of  our  Lord. 

We  shall  study  what  the  risen  life  is  and  what 
it  does  within  us. 


168  Every -Member  Evangelism 

1.     Chris fs  Risen  Life  Overcomes 

When  Christ  spoke  of  the  death  of  the  grain  of 
wheat,  he  went  on  immediately  to  speak  of  its  resur- 
rection and  fruitage.  Death  was  not  the  goal;  it 
was  simply  the  pathway  to  the  goal. 

This  is  a  truth  many  miss.  They  are  deterred 
from  surrender  to  the  cross  because  they  do  not 
see  what  is  beyond  it.  They  see  only  the  seeming 
loss  involved  in  crucifixion,  and  do  not  see  the 
resurrection  life  and  fruitage  on  the  other  side. 
The  cross  seems  to  them  not  the  beginning  but  the 
end  of  all  that  is  worth  while. 

But  when  Christ  was  on  his  way  to  the  cross  he 
saw  through  to  the  other  side,  and  seeing  *'the  joy 
that  was  set  before  him"  on  the  resurrection  side, 
he  "endured  the  cross"  willingly,  looking  down  upon 
the  shame  as  a  thing  not  to  be  reckoned  with,  and 
is  now  "set  down  at  the  right  hand  of  the  throne 
of  God."^  And  what  he  saw  on  the  resurrection 
side  he  will  cause  us  to  see,  if  we  will  let  him  touch 
our  eyes  into  spiritual  vision.  Right  here  is  the 
secret  of  getting  joy  out  of  sacrifice.  We  need  to 
see  the  cross  principle,  but  that  is  only  half  of  it. 
It  takes  the  resurrection  principle  to  complete  the 
truth. 

TWOFOLD  SALVATION 

This  twofoldness  of  Christ's  salvation  is  seen 
everywhere  in  Scripture.  He  saves  us  both  out  of, 
and  into.  By  his  cross  he  saves  us  out  of  self;  by 
his  resurrection  he  saves  us  into  service.  By  his 
cross  we  die  to  f ruitlessness ;  by  his  resurrection  we 


'Hcb.   12:2. 


The  Overflowing-  Love  of  Christ         169 


*t» 


rise  to  fruitage.  By  his  cross  is  ended  that  spirit 
of  lovelessness  that  lets  the  lost  all  around  us  go 
into  eternity  without  a  direct  effort  to  save  them; 
by  his  resurrection  is  begun  that  active  operation 
of  the  divine  love  within  us  that  impels  us  to  spend 
our  lives  in  rescuing  the  lost.  Salvation  is  two- 
fold; not  so  much  a  first  and  second  blessing  as  a 
twofold  blessing;  not  so  much  a  first  and  second 
work  of  grace  as  a  twofold  work  of  grace.  The 
cross  and  the  resurrection  are  always  associated  in 
New  Testament  doctrine,  and  they  cannot  be  sep- 
arated in  the  Christian's  experience.  It  is  impos- 
sible for  the  power  of  the  cross  to  enter  the  life 
without  the  power  of  the  resurrection  to  be  mani- 
fest also.  While  we  are  discussing  the  crucified 
and  risen  life  separately,  this  does  not  imply  sepa- 
rate experiences.  They  are  the  two  sides  of  one 
great  truth. 

It  is  quite  true  that  one  may  receive  the  benefits 
of  Christ's  death  and  resurrection  for  him  when  he 
believes  unto  salvation,  and  may  not  receive  the 
power  of  Christ's  death  and  resurrection  within 
him  until  a  later  day  in  his  experience,  though  this 
does  not  need  to  be  so.  But  when  the  power  of 
the  cross  becomes  a  living  reality  in  a  Christian's 
life,  the  power  of  the  resurrection  is  inseparable 
from  it. 

SATAN     CANNOT    TOUCH     US 

Now  the  risen  life  in  Christ  is  the  overcoming 
life.  By  the  power  of  the  cross  we  die  to  the 
enemy,  and  by  the  power  of  the  resurrection  we 


170  Every -Member  Evangelism 

rise  above  the  enemy.  Satan  cannot  touch  either 
the  sonship  of  the  saved  one  or  the  service  of  the 
surrendered  one.  The  soul  of  the  beUever  is  for- 
ever safe  in  Christ,  and  the  service  of  the  soul- 
winner  is  beyond  his  reach  in  Christ. 

It  is  because  our  life  is  hid  with  Christ  in  God 
that  it  is  beyond  the  reach  of  Satan.  As  some  one 
has  put  it,  "Satan  cannot  touch  our  life  in  its 
source,  for  God  is  its  source  and  he  cannot  touch 
God.  He  cannot  touch  our  life  in  its  channel,  for 
the  risen  Christ  is  its  channel,  and  he  cannot  touch 
the  risen  Christ.  He  cannot  touch  our  life  in  its 
power,  for  the  Holy  Spirit  is  its  power,  and  he  can- 
not touch  the  Holy  Spirit.  He  cannot  touch  our 
life  in  its  duration,  for  eternity  is  its  duration,  and 
he  cannot  touch  eternity.  And  he  cannot  touch 
our  life  in  its  sphere,  for  heaven  is  its  sphere,  and 
he  cannot  touch  heaven.  The  child  of  God  is 
eternally  safe  in  Christ." 

Moreover,  Satan  cannot  touch  the  service  of 
those  who  have  gone  by  way  of  the  cross  into  the 
risen  life  in  the  heavenlies  with  Christ.  That 
working  of  the  strength  of  the  Father's  might  which 
he  wrought  in  Christ  when  he  raised  him  from  the 
dead  and  set  him  far  above  all  rule,  and  authority, 
and  power,  and  dominion,  and  put  all  things  under 
his  feet,  is  also  "the  exceeding  greatness  of  his 
power  to  usward  who  believe" — who  live  by  faith 
— by  which  we  are  made  to  fellowship  with  Christ 
in  his  power  over  all  the  enemy.  And  so  when 
Satan  and  the  world  call  after  us,  their  call  must 


The  Overflowing  Love  of  Christ         1/1 

come  through  the  grave  of  Christ  to  reach  us,  and 
it  is  too  muffled  to  hear.  And  when  self  makes  its 
appeals  to  us  and  thunders  its  intimidations  at  us, 
we  are  dead  to  self  and  do  not  heed.  All  those 
weak  and  childish  excuses  for  our  selfish  and  crim- 
inal unwillingness  to  go  after  the  lost  which  come 
from  the  enemy  are  therefore  things  of  the  past. 
And  so  when  we  experience  the  power  of  his  resur- 
rection in  our  lives,  we  will  be  in  the  place  where 
nothing  the  enemy  can  do  can  deter  or  hinder  us  in 
the  least  from  the  work  of  soul-winning. 

Let  every  Christian  assuredly  know,  therefore, 
that  if  there  is  anything  whatever  that  is  hindering 
him  from  this  work,  he  is  not  experiencing  the 
power  of  Christ's  resurrection  in  his  life,  and  by 
that  much  he  is  under  the  enemy's  dominion. 

But  there  is  no  need  for  any  Christian  to  be  the 
tool  of  the  world,  the  slave  of  the  flesh,  and  the 
football  of  the  devil.  Paul  tells  us  in  Galatians 
5 :17,  as  Rotherham  translates  it,  "For  the  flesh 
coveteth  against  the  Spirit,  but  the  Spirit  against 
the  flesh, — for  these  unto  one  another  are  opposed, 
lest  whatsoever  things  ye  chance  to  desire,  these 
ye  should  be  doing!"  And  he  says  this  in  ex- 
planation of  the  previous  statement,  "By  Spirit  be 
walking,  and  fleshly  coveting  ye  will  in  no  wise 
fulfill." 

Dr.  F.  B.  Meyer  tells  about  going  down  in  a 
diving  bell.  The  passengers  sat  on  a  seat  fastened 
on  the  inside  of  the  bell.  When  they  were  low- 
ered, the  water  came  up  into  the  inside  of  the  bell 


172  Every- Member  Evangelism 

a  few  inches  and  then  stopped,  because  the  air  held 
it  down.  The  water  was  fighting  against  the  air, 
but  the  air  was  also  fighting  against  the  water,  so 
that  it  could  not  do  what  it  otherwise  would.  And 
the  passengers  did  nothing  but  accept  and  enjoy 
the  victory  of  the  air  over  the  water. 

Thus  it  is  with  every  Christian  who  turns  every- 
thing over  to  his  Lord.  The  life  of  the  risen  and 
indwelling  Christ  makes  constant  conquest  over  the 
flesh,  and  as  long  as  the  activity  of  the  flesh  is 
nullified  by  the  life  of  Christ  within  us,  neither  the 
world  nor  Satan  has  any  entrance  into  our  lives, 
and  therefore  no  power  over  them. 

This  means  that  we  are  free  for  service.  And  so 
nothing  the  enemy  can  do  can  hinder  us  from  a  life 
of  soul- winning. 

2.     Christ's  Radiant  Love  Overflows 

When  we  are  set  free  for  service,  we  are  in  the 
place  where  all  effective  witnessing  for  Christ  is 
done.  Our  lives  will  furnish  the  indispensable 
background  for  our  testimony,  and  our  testimony 
will  be  **in  demonstration  of  the  Spirit  and  of 
povv^er."^  When  the  enemy  loses  his  control  over 
our  lives,  we  can  witness  with  great  persuasiveness 
to  those  whom  the  enemy  is  holding  captive  at*his 
will.  For  the  doctrine  of  the  cross  becomes  sur- 
passingly persuasive  when  illustrated  by  crucified 
lives,  and  the  truth  of  the  resurrection  becomes  glo- 
riously triumphant  through  those  who  are  trans- 
figured by  the  risen  life  in  Christ. 

11   Cor.  2:4. 


The  Overflowing  Love  of  Christ         173 

And  when  it  comes  to  witnessing  to  Christ,  in- 
stead of  hesitating  to  take  the  Gospel  to  all  the  lost 
in  our  personal  worlds,  we  cannot  be  kept  from  it. 
We  shall  not  go  after  the  lost  because  we  are  com- 
manded to,  but  because  we  cannot  help  it.  We 
shall  never  run  before  we  are  sent,  but  we  shall 
always  go  when  we  are  sent.  And  if  the  enemy 
tries  to  prevent  us  from  speaking  in  Christ's  name 
— as  he  surely  will,  we  shall  turn  him  over  to  his 
Victor  and  go  right  on  with  our  testimony.  For 
the  love  of  Christ  will  so  constrain  us — so  bear  us 
along  and  impel  us — that  we  cannot  but  speak  the 
things  which  we  have  seen  and  heard. 

When  a  disciple  is  possessed  and  dominated  by 
the  life  of  the  risen  Lord,  he  cannot  keep  still 
about  him.  And  all  the  powers  of  earth  and  hell 
cannot  make  him  keep  still.  He  will  go  through 
every  condition  and  brave  every  difficulty  to  tell 
about  him. 

What  an  effect  a  little  first-hand  fellowship  with 
the  risen  Christ  had  on  those  Emmaus  disciples! 
There  flamed  within  their  hearts  a  strange  and 
wonderful  fire,  even  before  they  knew  him,  as  they 
listened  while  he  unfolded  the  Word  by  the  way. 
And  when  they  realized  that  he  was  their  risen 
Lord,  that  moment  they  forget  everything  else  and 
started  out  with  the  story,  "He  is  risen  !"^  They 
had  just  walked  seven  miles  and  a  half  from 
Jerusalem,  but  though  night  was  now  on,  their 
weariness  and  the  dangers  of  the  road  disappear  as 


iLuke  24:34. 


174  Every -Member  Evangelism 

they  hurry  back  over  the  same  rocky  road  with 
their  resurrection  message.  They  had  come  into 
personal  fellowship  with  the  risen  Christ,  and  the 
power  of  his  resurrection  had  so  transformed  their 
lives  that  they  could  not  wait  till  morning  to  tell 
the  story  of  his  triumph  over  death. 

Now  if  a  short  period  of  personal  fellowship  with 
the  risen  Christ  has  such  an  effect  as  this,  what 
about  the  effect  on  those  into  whose  lives  the  risen 
Christ  comes  as  an  abiding  Presence?  If  the  news 
was  so  good  to  those  disciples  that  they  must  tell 
it  in  spite  of  weariness  and  danger  and  everything 
else  that  could  hinder,  what  about  those  in  whose 
lives  the  power  of  his  resurrection  is  a  daily  ex- 
perience? If  you  can  keep  still  about  the  Son  of 
God,  you  give  no  evidence  of  any  experience  of  his 
resurrection  power  in  your  life,  and  that  means 
you  are  not  surrendered  to  him.  When  you  are 
living  in  the  power  of  his  risen  life  and  walking  in 
daily  triumph  over  all  the  power  of  the  enemy,  it 
will  be  news  too  good  to  keep,  and  you  will  go 
everywhere  telling  it.  It  is  hard  enough  to  keep 
bad  news,  but  when  it  comes  to  good  news  it  is 
impossible  to  keep  it.  If  the  Gospel  is  really 
Gospel — good  news — to  you,  you  cannot  keep  from 
telling  it.  If  you  are  not  telling  it,  it  is  not  good 
news  to  you ! 

It  is  something  like  this.  Touch  the  keys  of  an 
organ  and  it  refuses  to  speak — as  many  Christians 
do.  It  has  the  breath  within  it,  as  much  as  there 
is  in  the  room  around,  just  as  those  who  have  been 


The  Overflowing  Love  of  Christ         175 

born  again  have  within  them  the  breath  of  life; 
but  it  does  not  speak.  Now  turn  the  power  on, 
and  every  joint  is  strained  and  the  whole  organ 
cries  out,  Give  me  a  chance  to  speak !  In  the  same 
way  will  a  Christian  cry  out  when  the  power  of 
the  risen  life  has  taken  possession  of  him.  Touch 
him  on  any  side  and  he  will  speak  of  him  who  is 
mighty  to  save. 

Right  here  is  the  supreme  need  of  Christians 
everywhere  to-day!  There  can  be  no  glad,  spon- 
taneous obedience  to  the  Great  Commission  until 
the  power  has  been  turned  on.  Then  they  will  be 
like  Jeremiah  when  he  said,  *T  will  not  make  men- 
tion of  him,  nor  speak  any  more  in  his  name.  But 
his  word  was  in  mine  heart  as  a  burning  fire  shut 
up  in  my  bones,  and  I  was  weary  with  forbearing, 
and  I  could  not  stay."^  Even  when  he  tried  to  keep 
still,  he  could  not  do  it. 

Dr.  Chalmers  visited  a  dying  infidel  in  Glasgow 
twenty-one  times  and  was  refused  admission  every 
time.  But  at  the  twenty-second  visit  the  infidel 
invited  him  in,  because  he  wanted  to  see  the  man 
who  could  be  refused  twenty-one  times  and  still 
keep  coming.  And  then  Dr.  Chalmers  had  a  chance 
to  tell  the  dying  man  of  him  who  can  save.  What 
if  he  had  not  continued  calling!  What  if  he  had 
not  been  yielded  to  that  indwelling  one  who  kept 
him  calling! 

A  lady  was  calling  on  a  minister's  wife.  She 
was  told  of  a  cultured  family  near  by,  none  of 

'Jer.  20:9. 


176  Every -Member  Evangelism 

whom  ever  went  near  church,  and  she  said,  "1  will 
go  and  see  them." 

"What  excuse  will  you  offer  for  calling?"  asked 
the  minister's  wife.  "Oh,  yes;  take  this  book," 
she  said.  "I  remember  hearing  one  of  the  young 
ladies  express  a  desire  to  read  it."  , 

**But  I  don't  want  any  excuse,"  said  the  caller. 
*1  want  them  to  know  I  am  interested  in  them." 

That  visit  resulted  in  the  conversion  and  church- 
membership  of  three  of  them,  and  the  regular 
church  attendance  of  all  of  them. 

In  speaking  of  it  afterward,  the  mother  said, 
"I  never  realized  the  danger  we  were  in  until  I 
saw  some  one  else — and  that  one  a  stranger — was 
concerned  about  me." 

Oh,  for  multiplied  thousands  of  Christians 
through  whose  lives  the  radiant  love  of  Christ  is 
constantly  flowing  out  to  the  lost! 

Now  we  shall  study  the  effect  of  God's  love  on 
the  sinner. 

//.     The  Love  of  Christ  Compels  the  Sinner 

Contact  with  the  love  of  Christ  compels  action. 
It  is  absolutely  impossible  to  remain  indifferent  in 
its  presence.  Response  of  some  kind  is  as  certain 
as  response  in  nature  to  the  action  of  the  sun. 

But  the  response  which  love  compels  is  not  all 
of  one  kind.  It  is  of  two  opposite  kinds,  with  no 
middle  ground  between.  The  soul  that  feels  the 
love  of  Christ  will  respond  either  with  a  melting 
heart    or     with     antagonism.       Antagonism     may 


The  Overflowing  Love  of  Christ         177 

change  under  pressure  of  love  to  the  broken  and 
the  contrite  heart,  but  indifference  is  impossible. 
Christ's  love  compels  to  one  action  or  the  other. 

Every  true  Christian  wishes  most  devoutly  that 
all  hearts  might  be  compelled  to  melt  under  pres- 
sure of  the  divine  love,  but  so  long  as  man  can 
act  in  free  will,  he  will  be  able  to  reject  God's  grace, 
in  spite  of  all  that  even  God  himself  can  do  to 
melt  his  heart  to  love. 
1.     Love  Compels  Some  to  Rejection 

The  lost  want  to  be  let  alone  in  their  sins.  .  They 
have  no  desire  to  have  conscience  aroused,  for  its 
action  is  painful  and  intensely  unwelcome.  The 
demons  of  Christ's  day  on  earth  cried,  "Let  us 
alone,"!  and  this  is  the  cry  of  the  sinners  of  all 
ages.  This  is  precisely  why  the  lost  never  will 
come  to  church  until  the  miracle  of  Christ's  com- 
pelling love  draws  them  there. 

And  Satan  wants  the  lost  to  be  let  alone,  and  so 
he  fills  their  time  with  everything  that  will  crowd 
Christ  out,  and  then  keeps  Christians  from  taking 
the  Gospel  to  them. 

But  love  cannot  let  the  sinner  alone,  any  more 
than  light  can  let  darkness  alone.  This  is  why 
Christ,  in  love,  commissioned  every  Christian  to 
bring  men  everywhere  face  to  face  with  his  yearn- 
ing love,  and  this  is  why  those  who  are  filled  with 
that  love  cannot  help  going  with  it  to  all  the  lost 
about  them.  Love  simply  cannot  let  the  sinner 
alone. 


»Mark    1:24. 
13 


178  Every -Member  Evang-elism 


fc)' 


But  the  moment  the  pressure  of  Christ's  love  is 
brought  to  bear  on  the  sinner,  an  issue  is  drawn. 
He  must  make  a  choice  between  two  opposites. 
He  must  either  crown  Christ  or  crucify  him.  He 
cannot  remain  passive  when  the  issue  has  once  been 
drawn. 

Right  here  is  the  supreme  reason  why  we  are 
commanded  to  be  filled  with  Christ's  love  by  the 
fining  of  the  Spirit  before  we  go  to  the  lost.  Be- 
cause if  the  testimony  to  Christ's  love  is  presented 
apart  from  the  exhibition  of  it  in  our  lives,  the 
lost  are  more  likely  to  be  antagonized  than  they 
are  to  melt.  There  will  be  some  who  will  reject  it 
in  spite  of  its  utmost  exhibition,  as  they  did  when 
they  were  face  to  face  with  it  in  Christ  himself,  but 
what  an  unspeakable  crime  to  presume  to  go  to 
the  lost  when  we  are  not  filled  with  Christ's  love! 
And  what  a  more  terrible  crime  yet  to  be  so 
devoid  of  his  love  that  we  do  not  go  after  them 
at  all! 

Now  if  the  lost  reject  the  appeal  of  Christ's  love 
when  it  comes  to  them  through  a  love-filled  Hfe, 
they  will  treat  those  who  present  the  appeal  as  they 
did  the  Son  of  God  himself.  His  presence  in  the 
midst  of  wilful  sinners  stirred  up  an  accusing  and 
condemning  conscience,  and  therefore  caused  them 
the  most  terrible  and  unmitigated  pain  known  to 
the  experience  of  sinful  moral  beings,  and  they 
fought  him  ofif.  And  so  when  he  sought  to  do 
them  good,  they  went  about  to  do  him  harm.  When 
he  poured  his  blessings  on  them,  they  spewed  out 


The  Overflowing:  Love  of  Christ         179 


'fc> 


their  curses  on  him.  When  he  lavished  upon  them 
his  unmeasured  love,  they  let  loose  on  him  their 
sullen  hatred.  His  pity  brought  nothing  but  scorn, 
his  compassion  nothing  but  cruelty,  and  his  loving- 
kindness  nothing  but  fiendish  outrage. 

This  is  why  the  love-filled  Christian,  Hving  with 
Christ  in  the  heavenlies  and  seeking  to  save  the  lost, 
is  sure  to  suffer  the  contradiction  of  persistent 
sinners.  This  is  why  "all  that  will  live  godly  in 
Christ  Jesus  shall  suffer  persecution."^  And  this 
is  why  the  Christian  who  is  not  suffering  persecu- 
tion for  righteousness'  sake  gives  no  evidence  of  a 
godly  and  love-filled  life. 

The  aggressive  and  Christ-filled  soul-winner, 
therefore,  need  not  be  surprised  at  persecution  as 
though  some  strange  thing  had  overtaken  him,  for 
those  who  refuse  the  appeal  of  Christ's  love  can  do 
nothing  else.  Rejected  love  literally  compels  those 
who  reject  it  to  make  every  possible  effort  to 
quench  its  appeal. 

2.    Love  Compels  Some  to  Acceptance 

There  are  some,  however,  who  yield,  thank  God  1 
And  when  the  lost  break  under  the  appeal  and 
yield  to  his  love,  how  it  melts  them !  Nothing  else 
can  do  it  like  the  love  of  Christ. 

Otir  sympathy,  oiir  kindness,  our  love  will  never 
melt  a  sinner,  but  Christ's  will.  What  a  tragedy 
when  they  cannot  see  it  in  us !  What  a  glorifying 
of  our  risen  Lord  when  they  can !     Do  you  see  why 


'2  Tim.  3:12. 


180  Every- Member  Evangelism 

it  is  that  we  must  follow  Christ  all  the  way  to  the 
cross  and  to  resurrection  ground  before  we  can 
have  much  success  in  soul-winning?  For  it  is  only 
when  we  get  here  that  we  can  literally  compel  them 
to  come  in.  Perhaps  we  can  best  see  why  in  the 
light  of  some  illustrations  from  life. 

Dr.  J.  W.  Mahood  says  that  when  he  was  pastor 
in  Cedar  Rapids,  Iowa,  there  was  a  little  woman 
in  his  church  in  humble  circumstances.  She  did 
not  have  much  of  what  people  call  social  standing; 
she  kept  a  boarding-house.  She  had  a  number  of 
young  people  boarding  with  her,  and  it  was  noth- 
ing unusual  for  her  to  say  at  the  close  oi  a  noon 
meal,  "Before  you  return  to  your  work,  let  us 
kneel  down  and  ask  God's  blessing."  And  she 
would  kneel  with  them  and  pray  for  each  one  by 
name. 

One  day  there  came  to  her  a  book  agent  who 
was  not  a  Christian,  and  this  woman  discovered  it 
and  set  about  to  win  her  to  Christ.  At  the  close 
of  a  meal  she  said,  **Now  before  you  go  to  your 
rooms,  let  us  kneel  down  and  have  prayer,"  and 
she  prayed  for  each  one  about  the  table  until  she 
came  to  the  young  lady  book  agent,  and  then  she 
prayed  that  she  might  become  a  Christian. 

When  they  rose,  the  young  lady  was  in  tears. 
This  woman  put  her  arms  about  her  and  said, 
"This  is  the  soul  I  want  for  my  Jesus,"  and  drew 
her  into  another  room  and  got  down  on  her  knees 
and  pointed  her  to  Christ,  and  that  young  woman 
was  saved. 


The  Overflowing  Love  of  Christ         181 

She  was  always  doing  something  hke  that.  She 
used  to  say  to  Dr.  Mahood  that  she  kept  a  board- 
ing-house to  pay  expenses,  but  her  business  was  to 
win  souls  to  Christ.  She  was  impelled  by  that  love 
that  compels  the  lost  to  come  in. 

The  late  Dr.  J.  Wilbur  Chapman  has  told  the 
story  that  not  far  from  his  home  in  Indiana,  just 
across  the  state  Hne  in  Ohio,  there  lived  an  old 
woman  who  was  the  terror  of  all  who  had  ever 
seen  or  heard  of  her.  She  was  finally  arrested  and 
sent  to  Columbus  Penitentiary. 

She  broke  every  rule  of  the  institution,  and  they 
exhausted  every  form  of  punishment  upon  her. 
Times  without  number  they  had  sent  her  to  the 
dungeon,  and  for  weeks  at  a  time  she  lived  on 
bread  and  water. 

Finally  an  old  Quaker  lady  from  the  same  part 
of  the  state  asked  permission  to  see  her.  The  pris- 
oner was  led  into  her  presence  with  chains  upon 
her  hands  and  feet.  With  downcast  eyes  she  sat 
before  the  messenger  of  Christ. 

The  old  Quaker  lady  simply  said,  "My  sister." 

The  old  woman  cursed  her,  and  then  she  said, 
"I  love. you." 

With  another  oath  the  prisoner  said,  '*No  one 
loves  me !" 

Then  the  Christian  woman  came  near,  and  tak- 
ing the  sin-stained  face  in  both  her  hands,  she 
lifted  it  up  and  said,  "I  love  you,  and  Christ  loves 
you." 


182  Every- Member  Evangelism 

Then  she  kissed  her  first  upon  one  cheek  and 
then  upon  the  other,  and  that  broke  the  sinner's 
heart.  Her  tears  began  to  flow  like  rain.  She 
rose  to  her  feet,  and  they  took  the  chains  off,  and 
until  the  day  of  her  death  they  were  never  put  on 
again;  but  like  an  angel  of  mercy  she  went  up  and 
down  the  corridors  of  the  prison  ministering  to 
the  wants  of  others,  a  trophy  of  the  compelling 
love  of  Christ. 

A  QUESTION  OF  ETERNAL   MOMENT 

One  question  only  remains.  IVill  you  go?  He 
has  commanded  it;  he  will  enable  you.  Do  you 
dare  refuse? 

A  young  woman  barely  escaped  with  her  Hfe 
from  the  Chicago  fire.  After  she  was  in  safety 
she  began  to  sob  and  moan.  Those  around  her 
assured  her  that  she  was  perfectly  safe,  and  asked 
her  why  she  wept. 

She  said,  "Yes,  I  know  I  am  safe,  but  I  didn't 
save  anybody  else!" 

Then  they  said  to  her,  ''How  could  you?  You 
just  barely  escaped  with  your  own  life." 

*'Yes,"  she  said,  *T  know  that,  but  I  didn't  even 
try !" 

It  weighed  upon  her  mind  until  they  finally  took 
her  to  the  insane  asylum  moaning,  *'I  didn't  even 
try!     I  didn't  even  try!" 

"Must  I  go  and  empty  handed, 
Thus  mj'  dear  Redeemer  meet? 
Not  one  day  of  service  give  him, 
Lay  no  trophies  at  his  feet?" 


The  Overflowinof  Love  of  Christ         183 


'fc> 


"He  that  abideth  in  me,  and  I  in  him,  the  same 
bringeth  forth  much  fruit."'^ 

''Abide  in  him;  that  when  he  shall  appear,  we 
may  have  confidence,  and  not  be  ashamed  before 
him  at  his  coming."^ 

Dr.  W.  Leon  Tucker  tells  of  how,  in  New  York 
City,  there  was  a  great  street  demonstration  in 
which  twelve  thousand  people  marched.  The  most 
remarkable  thing  in  the  procession  was  three  sight- 
seeing motor  cars  packed  full  of  men,  women  and 
children.  In  one  of  them  was  a  Judge  of  the 
Court  of  Appeals,  and  in  the  last  one  was  a  ragged 
street  boy. 

On  the  sides  of  the  cars  it  said,  'These  people 
have  all  been  saved  from  burning  buildings  by  New 
York  City  firemen,"  and  then  back  of  the  cars 
marched  the  men  who  had  saved  them  wearing 
their  medals,  while  hundreds  of  thousands  of  people 
cheered  them. 

Think  of  the  eternal  joy  that  will  thrill  the 
hearts  of  those  who,  following  their  Lord  and  dis- 
regarding the  consequences,  have  spent  their  lives 
''pulling  men  out  of  the  fire"^! 


»John   15:5.     «1    John   2:28.     Uude   23. 


APPENDIX 

EVERY-MEMBER  EVANGELISM   IN 
OPERATION 

THE  mechanics  of  the  Great  Commission  Pro- 
gram which  Christ  gave  his  Church  to  follow 
during  this  Age  consist  of  two  very  simple  and  yet 
completely  comprehensive  items. 

The  first  is  the  division  of  territory  for  system- 
atic evangelism. 

The  second  is  the  division  of  labor  for  the  com- 
plete evangelization  of  the  territory. 

A  few  suggestions  as  to  how  to  divide  any  given 
territory,  and  how  to  organize  all  the  membership 
of  any  given  church  for  continuous  every-member 
evangelism  are  given  in  the  hope  that  they  may 
prove  of  real  value  to  many  churches  and  pastors. 

In  getting  every-member  evangelism  under  way 
in  any  given  field,  it  is  of  the  utmost  importance 
that  it  should  be  started,  not  simply  in  the  right 
manner,  but  especially  at  the  right  time. 

In  the  average  church  there  can  be  no  better 
time  in  which  to  get  this  method  of  work  into 
operation  than  in  connection  with  a  revival  cam- 
paign. In  fact,  the  spiritual  condition  of  most 
churches  almost  requires  that  a  work  of  this  sort 
be  started  at  such  a  time  if  it  is  to  be  undertaken 
184 


Organizing  for  Revival  Meetings  1«5 

in  dead  earnest  by  any  great  number  of  the 
members. 

As  a  preparation  for  a  series  of  meetings,  tem- 
porary organization  of  the  field,  with  a  view  to  per- 
manent organization  later,  can  be  made  not  only  to 
produce  wonderful  results  in  reaching  the  lost  in 
the  meetings,  but  can  also  be  made  to  produce 
such  an  atmosphere  in  the  church  that  the  young 
converts  will  not  be  laid  away  in  cold  storage  after 
they  come  into  membership,  but  will  be  set  at  once 
to  obeying  the  Great  Commission  in  their  own  per- 
sonal worlds. 

The  suggestions  which  follow  for  organizing  a 
field  for  meetings  can  be  adapted  to  any  sort  of 
field,  and  can  be  made  a  permanent  fixture  in 
church  life,  providing  the  proper  method  is  used 
for  turning  the  temporary  organization  into  per- 
manency. 

ORGANIZING  FOR  REVIVAL  MEETINGS 

First,  determine  on  the  boundaries  of  your  field, 
taking  in  as  much  territory  as  the  church  can  rea- 
sonably hope  to  cover  when  the  work  is  fully  or- 
ganized and  the  plan  bepomes  permanent. 

Second,  divide  the  territory  into  sections,  rang- 
ing in  size  from  a  city  square  to  any  size  you  judge 
can  be  most  perfectly  cared  for,  also  having  some 
regard  for  the  future  population  of  sections  not 
now  entirely  built  up. 

Third,  assign  your  entire  membership  to  the  vari- 


186  Every -Member  Evangelism 

ous  sections  of  your  field,  spreading  them  over  the 
territory  proportionately  to  the  population  of  each 
section,  and  assigning  them  either  to  the  section 
they  live  in,  or  one  as  near  their  own  as  possible. 

Fourth,  select  a  chairman  for  each  district,  pick- 
ing out  those  with  the  greatest  ability  to  get  things 
done,  and  having  special  care  that  they  are  spir- 
itually minded  and  leaders  in  the  work  of  soul- 
winning.  Also  select  the  chairman  for  the  whole 
organization.  This  chairman  should  not  be  the  pas- 
tor, if  it  is  possible  to  avoid  it,  but  the  most  spir- 
itually minded  executive  among  the  laymen  of  the 
church.  The  reason  for  this  suggestion  is  that  the 
pastor  has  enough  to  do  that  no  one  else  can  do, 
and  also  that  if  the  pastor  is  chairman,  when  he 
goes  the  work  is  likely  to  disintegrate  between  pas- 
torates, to  say  nothing  of  the  possibility  that  the 
next  pastor  may  not  have  the  executive  ability  nec- 
essary, or  may  throw  that  method  of  work  out 
altogether  and  put  in  something  of  his  own  prefer- 
ence. If  a  layman  is  chairman  the  work  will  not  only 
be  kept  up  between  pastorates,  but  the  church  will 
see  to  it  that  they  get  pastors  who  will  fit  into  a  plan 
that  is  a  permanent  fixture  in  their  church  life. 

Fifth,  call  all  the  adult  members  of  every  section 
together  at  some  time  convenient  to  all,  and  lay 
plans  for  a  thorough  canvass  of  the  field. 

Sixth,  canvass  the  field,  taking  a  religious  census, 
and  using  all  the  adult  members  possible  in  their 
own  districts  to  do  the  work.  It  is  of  much  im- 
portance that  as  many  adult  members  as  possible 


Organizing  for  Revival  Meetings         187 

should  be  used  in  this  work,  for  they  need  to  be- 
come familiar  with  their  own  districts  to  be  most 
effective  in  the  work  that  will  follow  the  canvass. 

Some  churches  make  up  a  "constituency  list" 
instead  of  making  a  canvass,  but  this  method  should 
be  used  only  when  a  canvass  is  absolutely  impos- 
sible, as  the  "constituency  list"  method  leaves  a 
great  portion  of  the  field  entirely  untouched,  and 
is  not  in  strict  accord  with  the  Great  Commission. 

A  church  in  a  large  city  in  which  the  writer 
held  meetings,  located  in  a  residential  section  of 
the  city,  sent  out  seventy  members,  two  by  two, 
who  made  over  ten  thousand  calls  in  preparation 
for  the  meetings.  The  names  they  took  in  their 
census  of  those  belonging  to  other  denominations 
were  turned  over  in  duplicate  to  their  respective 
pastors,  and  they  themselves  had  a  list  of  their 
own  of  over  a  thousand  unsaved  belonging  in  their 
own  "constituency"  when  the  meetings  started. 
The  effect  on  the  church  of  the  canvassing  alone 
was  very  evident,  and  the  pastor  remarked  time 
and  again  during  the  meetings  that  the  church  had 
been  completely  transformed.  There  was  an  at- 
mosphere all  through  the  campaign  that  is  seen 
only  in  the  most  powerful  meetings. 

Seventh,  list  all  the  non-members  separately.  For 
convenience  they  may  be  classified  something  like 
this: 

(1)  Those  in  the  homes  of  your  own  members. 

(2)  Those  in  the  homes  where  you  have  Sun- 
day-school scholars  but  no  members. 


188  Every -Member  Evangelism 

(3)  Those  in  homes  where  there  are  members 
of  other  churches.  You  are  responsible  for  taking 
the  Gospel  to  these  people,  and  should  seek  to  lead 
them  to  Christ,  if  no  one  else  is  making  the  attempt, 
no  matter  what  church  they  may  go  into  if  they 
are  saved. 

(4)  Those  in  homes  unrelated  to  any  church 
through  any  one  in  their  family. 

When  you  have  completed  the  canvass  of  your 
territory  and  the  listing  of  all  non-church  members, 
your  harvest  field  is  before  you.  Even  the  most 
earnest  Christians  will  have  little  enthusiasm  over 
a  harvest  they  cannot  see,  and  so  it  is  of  the  utmost 
importance  to  get  your  harvest  where  you  can  see 
it,  think  about  it,  and  pray  over  it.  And  the  most 
cold  and  careless  Christians — if  they  are  Christians 
at  all — will  warm  up  and  become  enthusiastic  when 
confronted  by  a  possible  harvest  of  hundreds,  per- 
haps thousands,  of  real  men,  women,  and  children 
whose  names  and  addresses  you  have  before  you. 

The  indefinite  "anywhereness"  of  your  work  is 
then  gone,  and  the  people  will  know  exactly  what 
they  are  about  when  they  start  out  to  obey  the 
Great  Commission.  It  is  the  indefiniteness  of  our 
methods  of  evangelism  that  defeats  us  more  then 
any  other  one  thing  outside  of  our  sin. 

Eighth,  after  the  canvass  is  completed,  gather 
both  adults  and  young  people  together  and  get 
them  to  volunteer  some  definite  time  each  week, 
from  one  hour  up,  for  the  doing  of  personal  work 
with  the  lost. 


Organizing  for  Revival  Meetings         189 

List  all  those  who  will  start  out  in  utter  depend- 
ence on  God  to  do  that  work,  and  form  them  into 
a  class  for  both  instruction  and  report  on  work 
done. 

List  all  the  rest  separately,  letting  them  know 
that  you  expect  all  of  them  to  get  into  the  work  of 
soul-winning  as  soon  as  they  will,  and  meantime 
get  them  to  volunteer  some  time  weekly  for  any 
other  work  to  which  you  can  assign  them,  and  then 
send  them  out  with  personal  workers  so  that  they 
may  be  inducted  into  that  work,  and  also  use  them 
in  any  other  work  that  will  be  a  stepping-stone  to 
personal  evangelism. 

Then  the  personal  workers  should  be  brought  to 
feel  the  responsibility  for  taking  the  Gospel  to  all 
the  lost  in  their  own  district — and  anywhere  else 
the  Holy  Spirit  leads  them.  To  make  this  prac- 
tical, they  should  be  assigned  the  names  of  definite 
ones  as  the  pastor  and  they  feel  led,  and  if  they 
work  in  other  districts  than  their  own  they  should 
do  so  in  co-operation  with  the  chairmen  of  those 
districts,  so  that  confusion  will  not  arise. 

Ninth,  meet  the  chairmen  and  personal  workers 
of  all  the  districts  once  a  week  until  the  meetings 
begin,  and  have  them  report  how  many  they  have 
dealt  with,  how  many  have  accepted  Christ,  and 
how  many  Christians  who  are  not  doing  personal 
work  they  have  tried  to  lead  into  the  work.  Then 
turn  this  meeting  into  a  prayer-meeting  for  the 
lost  of  your  field. 

Tenth,  within  three  or  four  weeks  of  the  meet- 


190  Every- Member  Evangelism 

ings  arrange  for  cottage  prayer-meetings  in  each 
district,  in  homes  where  there  are  unsaved,  if  pos- 
sible, and  hold  all  the  members  of  each  district  re- 
sponsible for  the  conduct,  attendance  and  success 
of  the  meetings.  It  might  stimulate  interest  if  you 
had  a  weekly  report  of  the  proportion  of  members 
attending  in  each  district,  leaving  out  of  the  count 
those  who  were  known  to  be  unable  to  attend. 

MAKING  THIS  PROGRAM  PERMANENT 

Most  pastors  know  by  sad  experience  that  a 
church  will  start  out  on  a  method  of  this  sort  with 
a  great  deal  of  enthusiasm,  but  that  within  a  few 
months  at  most  the  whole  thing  has  petered  out. 
In  most  churches  where  there  is  a  fair  degree  of 
enthusiasm  in  the  general  work  of  the  church  it 
is  little  trouble  to  get  a  new  method  of  work 
started,  especially  if  it  looks  practical  and  promises 
to  produce  results,  but  the  tough  part  of  the  job 
is  to  keep  it  going.  Can  a  church  be  kept  perma- 
nently at  work  by  this  program?  Not  by  virtue 
of  any  power  inherent  in  the  program  itself.  No 
program,  however  promising  and  practical,  has  any 
power  to  get  itself  followed.  "Power  belongeth 
unto  God."i 

There  is  a  business  method,  however,  that  ought 
to  be  of  as  great  value  as  anything  can  be  outside 
the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  that  is  the  uni- 
versal custom  of  reports  on  work  done.  The  aver- 
age salesman  would  soon  begin  to  lose  out  if  he  did 


»Psalm  62:11. 


Making  This  Program  Permanent  191 

not  make  regular  reports  of  everything  he  does  for 
the  firm,  and  besides  this,  the  comparisons  between 
his  reports  and  those  of  other  salesmen  are  of  stim- 
ulating value  all  around.  This  method,  therefore, 
will  go  about  as  far  as  anything  human  and  me- 
chanical can  go  toward  making  the  above  program 
permanent. 

Blanks  can  be  furnished  for  reporting  all  calls 
made  and  their  results,  and  also  a  large  blank  on 
which  the  chairman  of  each  district  can  summarize 
the  work  done  in  his  district  during  the  month. 
These  blanks  should  be  as  simple  and  require  as 
little  work  as  possible  and  yet  cover  all  the  work 
done. 

Then  there  should  be  a  meeting  once  a  week 
either  of  each  district  by  itself,  or  of  all  of  them 
together,  for  prayer,  study,  and  conference,  and 
once  a  month  all  should  meet  together,  at  least  all 
the  officers  of  each  district,  and  compare  reports. 

At  the  monthly  meetings  suggestions  can  be  made 
for  the  benefit  of  those  whose  districts  seem  to  be 
least  successful,  and  the  general  chairman  can  per- 
haps arrange  for  some  help  to  be  rendered  during 
the  month  ahead  by  some  from  the  more  successful 
districts. 

There  is  another  thing  that  can  also  be  done  to 
make  this  program  aj)ermanent  fixture  in  church 
life.  It  can  be  adapted  to  every  variety  of  church 
work,  for  it  is  exceedingly  flexible. 

For  example,  the  pastor  can  be  kept  in  constant 
touch,   through  the   district   organization,   with  his 


192  Every- Member  Evangelism 

entire  church  membership,  no  matter  how  large  it 
is,  cases  of  absence  from  services,  sickness,  need, 
flagging  interest,  removals,  and  anything  else  he 
needs  to  have  information  on,  being  promptly  re- 
ported. This  eliminates  all  the  loose  ends,  and 
puts  the  pastor's  work  for  his  members  into  such 
business-like  shape  that  he  can  accomplish  vastly 
more  with  the  same  time  and  effort. 

Through  the  same  channels  also  the  Sunday- 
school  can  be  looked  after,  useless  leakage  stopped, 
and  far  more  than  the  usual  per  cent  of  the  scholars 
won  to  Christ  and  brought  into  the  church. 

The  Ladies',  Men's  and  Young  People's  organ- 
izations can  also  be  brought  to  a  higher  degree  of 
fruitfulness  than  they  have  ever  reached  before, 
and  any  other  organization  of  the  church  that  has 
a  vital  mission  can  be  put  into  most  vigorous 
condition. 

One  feature  of  this  program  that  cannot  pos- 
sibly be  overestimated  is  that  every  member  of  the 
church,  even  down  to  the  children,  can  be  given 
something  definite  to  do,  and  can  be  kept  doing  it. 

Then  when  you  have  anything  special  on  in  any 
department  of  church  activity,  you  can  turn  the 
whole  organization  loose  on  that  particular  job. 
For  example,  suppose  you  have  a  contest  on  for 
Sunday-school  scholars.  You  have  every  means 
at  hand  for  thoroughly  searching  every  nook  and 
corner  of  your  field  for  scholars.  If  a  series  of 
meetings  is  ahead,  you  can  repeat  the  preparations 
suggested  above,  only  with  greatly  increased  effec- 


The  Divine  Dynamics  193 

tiveness.  And  in  the  social  activities  of  the  church, 
the  various  districts  can  be  made  responsible,  in 
turn,  for  all  the  social  occasions  of  the  year.  And 
when  the  end  of  your  church  year  approaches,  you 
have  all  the  machinery  at  hand  and  in  running  order 
for  the  every-member  canvass. 

These  are  the  mechanics  not  only  of  a  very  effec- 
tive preparation  for  a  series  of  evangehstic  meet- 
ings, but  especially  of  such  an  organization  in  any 
given  church  as  will  enable  it  seriously  to  under- 
take to  obey  the  Great  Commission  according  to 
the  program  of  the  Day  of  Pentecost. 

THE  DIVINE  DYNAMICS 

That  which  is  of  the  utmost  moment  in  this  work, 
however,  is  not  the  mechanics  but  the  dynamics. 
All  the  mechanics  in  the  world  will  avail  nothing 
apart  from  the  power  from  on  high.  This  work 
tnust  be  done,  not  by  might,  nor  by  power,  but 
the  Holy  Spirit.  The  wheels  are  necessary,  but 
the  Living  Spirit  must  be  within  the  zuheels  before 
they  will  bear  the  lost  to  God!  Therefore,  prayer! 
prayer!!  prayer!!!  There  may  be  some  things  we 
can  overdo  in  this  work,  but  prayer  is  not  one  of 
them.  And  so  everything  that  is  done  must  be 
saturated  zvith  the  spirit  of  prayer.  And  then  as 
the  members  go  out  into  the  homes  of  the  lost  in 
the  field,  the  Holy  Spirit  will  go  before  them,  and 
such  conviction  of  sin  will  result  that  many  will  be 
won  to  Christ  in  their  own  homes,  and  many  others 
will  come  to  church  because  they  cannot  stay  away. 


194  Every- Member  Evangelism 

and  the  pastor's  sermons  will  prove  to  be  the 
weekly  climax  of  the  work  that  is  being  constantly 
done  throughout  the  field  by  consecrated  soul- 
winners. 

A  present-day  example  of  how  marvelously  effec- 
tive this  method  of  work  may  become  is  outlined 
in  a  story  of  a  great  work  in  the  First  Baptist 
church  of  Lowell,  Massachusetts,  which  appeared 
in  the  "Watchman-Examiner"  of  April  19,  1917. 
This  story  is  so  practical  that  it  is  repeated  here. 

"During  the  two  and  a  half  years  in  which  the 
Rev.  Arthur  C.  Archibald  has  been  pastor  of  the 
First  Baptist  Church,  Lowell,  Mass.,  there  has  been 
a  remarkable  growth  and  development  of  the  church 
in  every  respect.  The  missionary  offerings  have 
increased  50  per  cent,  the  Sunday-school  has  gained 
35  per  cent,  making  its  present  enrollment  more 
than  1,200.  Six  hundred  and  forty-six  new  mem- 
bers have  been  received  into  the  church,  420  of 
them  within  the  last  year,  the  present  membership 
of  the  church  being  1,670.  During  this  period  no 
evangelist  has  been  called  in,  and  no  special  meet- 
ings have  been  held,  the  great  ingathering  result- 
ing, as  far  as  human  agencies  are  concerned,  from 
the  enlisting  of  the  members  of  the  church  in  the 
work  of  definite,  personal  evangelism. 

*'The  first  thing  was  the  careful  listing  of  every 
man,  woman  and  child  in  the  city  not  identified 
with  any  other  church,  and  actually  or  construc- 
tively within  the  bounds  of  the  field  of  the  First 
Church.     This  list  was  obtained  in  many  ways — 


The  Divine  Dynamics  195 

from  the  pastor's  visiting  list,  from  the  Sunday- 
school  roll,  from  cards  distributed  at  the  services, 
from  information  secured  from  the  neighbors,  and 
in  other  ways.  The  great  thing  was  that  when 
the  pastor  was  ready  to  start  his  church  out  on  its 
new  campaign  he  knew  the  constituency  upon  which 
it  was  to  work.  There  was  nothing  indefinite  and 
haphazard  about  the  venture. 

"The  next  thing  was  to  put  up  a  challenge  to  the 
church,  which  he  did  about  a  year  ago.     'One  hun- 
dred and  fifty  new  members  for  the  First  Church 
to  be  won  in  ten  weeks'  was  the  slogan  sounded. 
To    accomplish    this    he    called    for    one    hundred 
volunteers.     Sixty-five  responded  to  the  first  call, 
and  the  required  number  was  secured  through  a 
little  personal  pressure.     This  year  when  the  call 
was  made  for  150  for  a  similar  work,  all  but  three 
of  the  original  one  hundred  responded  at  once,  and 
there    were  75   others   ready   to    enlist.     Says   the 
pastor,    'Those  who   go    through    a    work   of    this 
character  are  eager  for   it  a  second  time.     They 
know  the  taste  of  victory,  and  it  is  sweet.     Their 
own  souls  are  mightily  edified.'     These  volunteers 
constituted  a  'Crusaders  League  of  Soul- Winners,' 
entering  into  a  covenant  'to  make  an  honest  effort 
to  win'^one  soul  to  Christ  and  the  church,  to  win 
that  soul  before  a  certain  date  (this  year  April  8), 
and  to  work  under  assignment  of  and  in  co-opera- 
tion with  the  pastor.'     To  each  crusader  a  certain 
number  of  names  were  assigned  by  the  pastor,  to- 
gether  with    cards   to   be    filled    with    information 


196  Every -Member  Evangelism 

secured  as  a  result  of  the  visits  made,  and  declara- 
tion cards  to  be  signed  when  the  persons  visited 
had  made  their  decision.  The  first  call  was  sup- 
posed to  be  made  within  a  week  after  the  assign- 
ment and  the  information  received  sent  at  once  to 
the  pastor,  who  was  thus  able  to  know  all  the  time 
just  what  work  was  being  done,  and  by  whom.  The 
declaration  cards  when  signed  were  returned  to  the 
pastor,  who  called  at  once  upon  the  new  convert 
to  encourage  and  strengthen  him  in  his  decision, 
and  urge  him  to  unite  with  the  church.  The  calls 
of  the  crusaders  were  not  formal  and  perfunctory. 
They  were  distinctly  and  directly  religious.  Each 
worker  was  impressed  with  the  fact  that  he  was 
on  the  King's  business  with  regard  to  those  to 
whom  he  was  sent.  A  name  given  to  one  was 
never  given  to  another  unless  the  first  requested 
it,  or  until  he  had  done  his  best  to  persuade  the  per- 
son named  to  accept  Christ.  Thus  each  was  made 
to  feel  deeply  his  personal  responsibility  in  the 
matter.  In  the  course  of  the  visitation  many  were 
found  who  had  formerly  been  identified  with  the 
church,  but  who  had  lost  interest  and  whose  mem- 
bership had  lapsed.  These  were  encouraged  to  re- 
turn to  the  Lord,  and  to  secure  their  church  letters 
or  unite  with  the  First  Church  by  experience. 

"The  campaign  covered  a  definite  period — ten 
weeks.  During  this  time  the  Sunday  morning  ser- 
mons were  directed  mainly  to  the  thought  of  the 
relationship  of  Christians  to  the  unsaved  world, 
while  those  of  the  evening  were  warmly  evangel- 


The  Divine  Dynamics  197 

istic.  The  city  was  divided  into  seven  districts, 
with  a  neighborhood  prayer-meeting  in  each  dis- 
trict every  Tuesday  night.  At  the  regular  prayer- 
meeting  on  Friday  night  the  workers  were  expected 
to  be  present  with  the  converts  secured  by  them 
during  the  week  for  pubHc  profession  of  their  faith. 

"Last  year  the  ten  weeks  of  campaigning  ended 
in  May,  and  instead  of  the  150  new  members  con- 
stituting the  objective,  on  a  single  Sunday  174 
members  were  received  into  the  church !  This  year 
the  effort  was  timed  to  terminate  April  8 — Easter 
Sunday.  The  objective  was  still  the  same,  but  the 
overrun  was  even  larger — 225!  Of  this  number 
208  were  present  to  receive  the  hand  of  fellowship, 
the  others  being  detained  for  various  reasons. 

"The  scene  on  Easter  Sunday  will  not  soon  be 
forgotten.  The  house  was  packed  to  its  utmost 
capacity.  Before  his  sermon  Pastor  Archibald 
baptized  24  children  from  the  Sunday-school,  the 
*lambs  of  the  flock'  held  for  baptism  until  this  time, 
the  adults  having  been  baptized  on  previous  Sun- 
days. The  associate  editor  of  the  *Watchman-Ex- 
aminer'  had  the  privilege  of  saying  a  few  words  of 
greeting  and  admonition  to  the  new  members,  who 
rose  and  stood  before  him,  a  good-sized  church  in 
themselves.  About  80  per  cent  of  the  number  were 
adults,  about  equally  divided  between  men  and 
women.  Fifty-one  were  young  men.  There  were 
27  husbands  and  wives,  and  five  whole  families,  and 
in  seven  instances  more  than  two  adults  came  from 
one  family.     It  was  a  stirring  sight,  but  not  more 


198  Every- Member  Evangelism 

so  than  that  of  the  standing  together  of  the  band 
of  Crusaders,  nearly  150  in  number,  who  rose  to 
receive  a  message  of  appreciation  and  exhortation 
from  the  pastor.  Happy  the  pastor  who  can  look 
on  such  a  company  of  workers  as  that !  Blessed 
the  church  with  such  a  corps  of  workers! 

"In  the  return  of  the  information  cards  those 
which  represent  cases  apparently  hopeless  are  not 
thrown  aside,  but  are  carefully  filed  away  for  the 
next  campaign.  Mr.  Archibald  asserts  that  a  most 
valuable  feature  of  this  method  of  work  is  that,  *so 
far  from  exhausting  the  field  of  possible  additions, 
each  successive  campaign  enlarges  it  and  makes  it 
ready  for  another  campaign  to  follow.  Visitation 
in  homes  where  there  is  little  or  no  interest  awakens 
attention  and  gradually  wins  to  church  attendance, 
and  so  prepares  many  for  a  future  appeal  who  were 
entirely  unready  to  respond  at  the  first  approach. 
Scores  have  been  received  into  the  church  in  the 
present  effort  who  one  year  ago  were  utterly  un- 
moved.' As  to  the  effect  of  this  kind  of  work  on 
the  church  itself  he  says:  'The  church  has  risen 
to  a  consciousness  of  its  own  inherent  strength. 
You  cannot  persuade  the  people  of  the  First  Church 
to-day  to  send  for  an  evangelist,  for  they  know 
what  they  themselves  can  do.  They  are  ready  to 
respond  to  any  task,  for  for  two  years  they  have 
found  that  they  have  been  able  to  do  what  at  one 
time  they  thought  was  impossible.  This  method  has 
exhilarated  the  whole  church  life." 

It  cannot  be  too  strongly  emphasized  that  what 


The  Divine  Dynamics  199 

Christ  commanded  in  the  Great  Commission  is  in- 
dividual work  for  individuals.  An  organization 
called  the  Church  cannot  discharge  the  obligation  to 
obey  the  Great  Commission  resting  on  each  indi- 
vidual Christian. 

Therefore,  if  the  church  to  which  you  belong  is 
not  helping  every  member  to  get  into  this  work  by 
a  systematic  division  of  territory  and  labor,  that  in 
no  wise  relieves  you  of  your  responsibility.  You 
must  go  in  person  after  lost  men  and  women  and 
seek  to  lead  them  to  Christ,  or  live  in  perpetual 
disobedience  to  your  Lord.  Others  are  going.  The 
Lord  vv'ill  enable  you. 

A  Sunday  School  Times  stenographer  made  a 
list  of  about  twenty  acquaintances,  and  went  after 
them  and  won  them  for  Christ. 

A  girl  thirteen  years  old  led  ten  of  her  com- 
panions into  the  inquiry  room  during  a  three  weeks' 
evangelistic  meeting  which  the  writer  conducted  in 
Hamilton,   Canada. 

A  salesman  who  was  in  many  of  the  meetings  of 
a  campaign  conducted  by  the  writer  in  Dr.  Russell 
H.  Conwell's  church  in  Philadelphia,  had  at  that 
time  led  five  thousand  and  eighty-six  to  Christ. 
Several  of  the  converts  of  the  meetings  resulted 
from  his  work. 

You  can  go  after  the  lost  too.  And  you  will,  if 
the  love  of  God  fills  and  impels  you.  Sophie  the 
scrubwoman  said,  "Some  people  said  they  saw  me 
talking  to  a  wooden  Indian  outside  a  cigar  store. 
That  might  be  so,  I  don't  know.     My  eyesight  is 


200  Every- Member  Evangelism 

poor.  But  that  ain't  so  bad  as  being  a  wooden 
Christian  that  never  talks  for  Jesus  at  all." 

But  you  say,  "I  don't  know  how."  Neither  does 
any  one  else  when  they  start  out.  In  one  of  Dr. 
Torrey's  meetings  in  England  he  was  insisting  that 
the  only  way  to  learn  how  to  do  personal  work  is 
to  do  it.  Afterwards  an  earnest  Christian  man 
said,  "Why,  that's  exactly  where  I  have  been  mak- 
ing my  mistake.  For  years  I  have  had  an  intense 
desire  to  be  able  to  deal  personally  with  men  and 
women  and  point  them  to  Christ;  but  on  every 
occasion  when  the  opportunity  has  presented  itself, 
I  have  shrunk  back,  thinking  I  was  unqualified  for 
the  work,  and  making  way  for  those  who  appeared 
to  have  a  special  gift  in  this  direction.  Now  I  see 
that  they  must  have  begun  just  where  I  must  begin 
— without  any  practical  experience.  After  this  I 
am  going  to  take  the  very  first  chance  I  get  to  speak 
with  an  inquirer,  and  trust  God  for  the  guidance 
and  wisdom  necessary."  No  one  can  ever  learn  to 
do  personal  work  in  any  way  except  to  start  out 
and  do  it,  as  God  leads. 

But  you  say  again,  *'I  have  no  opportunity." 
But  you  do !  They  are  all  about  you.  Dr.  How- 
ard W.  Pope  tells  a  story  that  illustrates  this  fact. 

Holding  meetings  in  California,  he  said  at  one 
of  the  services  that  he  believed  every  Christian  had 
both  the  ability  and  the  opportunity  to  bring  Christ 
to  the  lost.  At  the  close  of  the  service  a  woman 
came  to  him  and  objected  that  she  was  a  poor,  hard- 
working  widow,   with   several  children   dependent 


The  Divine  Dynamics  201 

on  her,  and  that  she  had  neither  time  nor  oppor- 
tunity to  do  such  work. 

Dr.  Pope  asked:  *'Do  your  neighbors  never xall 
to  see  you?"  "Rarely."  "Does  the  grocer  call?" 
"Yes."  "Is  he  a  Christian?"  "I  don't  know." 
"Does  the  milkman  ever  call  at  your  house  ?"  *'Yes, 
every  day."  "Is  he  a  Christian?"  "I  don't  know 
whether  he  is  or  not,  and  I  don't  consider  it  my  busi- 
ness to  ask  him,  either,"  and  the  woman  went  away 
very  angry.  She  couldn't  rest  very  well  after  she 
went  to  bed  that  night,  and  finally  determined  she 
would  make  it  her  business  to  find  out  whether 
these  men  were  saved. 

The  next  morning  the  milkman  ran  up  the  steps, 
emptied  his  pail,  started  to  run  out,  when  the 
woman  gasped,  "Milkman!"  "Oh,  an  extra  quart 
to-day?"  emptying  another  quart  into  the  pail. 
"Oh,  no,  but  are  you  a  Christian?"  The  man 
turned  on  her  with  a  look  she  never  forgot.  "No, 
and  I  don't  care  a  fig  about  being  one,  either. 
Do  you  remember  the  meetings  held  last  winter? 
Well,  I  was  interested  then,  and  if  I  had  been 
invited  would  have  attended.  Someway,  I  thought 
perhaps  you  would  Hke  to  talk  to  me  about  it, 
but  you  didn't,  and  no  one  seemed  to  care  whether 
I  was  a  Christian  or  not,  and  now  I  tell  you  I 
don't  care.  I  have  lost  all  interest  in  those  things," 
and  he  turned  on  his  heel  and  ran  down  the  steps. 

The  poor  woman  threw  herself  prostrate  upon 
the  floor  and  in  agony  of  spirit  promised  her  Lord 
if  he  would   forgive  her  past  neglect   she  would 


202  Every- Member  Evangelism 

never  let  another  opportunity  pass  without  speaking 
a  word  for  her  Master. 

When  Dr.  Pope  called  two  years  later  to  hold 
meetings  again  she  related  her  experience  and 
added : 

"Six  of  the  seven  men  that  call  regularly  at  my 
home  in  a  business  way  are  Christians;  all  have 
been  converted  during  these  two  years — all  bu"- 
the  milkman." 

Christian,  some  one  is  waiting  right  now  for  you 
to  go  to  them  with  the  story  of  salvation.  And 
the  one  who  died  for  you — and  for  them — is  wait- 
ing for  you  to  go.  He  has  commanded  it.  He  will 
enable  you.     Will  you  go? 


W.  B.  c. 


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